Bassignana: sights, history and trails

The first inhabitants of which they have news belonged to the Ligurian tribe of the Marici: they had crossed the Apennines in the post-glacial era and had settled south of the Po, in the area between Stradella and Casale Monferrato. This population was closely linked to that of the Levi, located further north: the foundation of Pavia is attributed to the Levi and the Marici. In the area there are some toponymic traces of that period: Bosco Marengo derived from Lucus Maricum And Pietra Marazzi from the Petra Maricorum or Mariciorum.

In the 6th century BC. The Po Valley was occupied by Celtic populations from the north and probably also Bassignana had contacts and acquaintances with these people. It is traced in some dialectal expressions of clear Celtic origin: ♪ that means "choline" and I'll be fine which means "fighting".

In 222 BC. Roman commanders Marco Claudio Marcello and Gneo Cornelio Scipione conquered the entire area, conquered with the defeat of the Ligurians in 166 BC. under the consulate of Gaius Sulpicius Gallo. At that time the name of the municipality was born, which derives from the Roman family to which the possession of the territory was attributed, gens Bassinia.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the various barbaric incursions, Bassignana was first subjected to the rule of the Longobards then to that of the Franks. On 22 November 996, through an imperial diploma, by the granting of Emperor Otto I, the village passed to the bishop of Pavia, jurisdiction relating to the Parish (plebs) and its annexes. Subsequently it passed to the counts of Stazzona, following the bishops of Tortona. Finally in 1191 it was subjected to the municipality of Alessandria.

For a long time, from 1290 to 1428, the year in which the dynasty was extinct, Bassignana was fief of the Beccaria, and then, until the eighteenth century in hand to other noble families, to whom he was once donated by the Savoy, the Sforza and the French. Its border position has made it the scene of numerous battles. Here in 1206 the truce between Alessandria, Asti and Pavia. At the beginning of the 13th century, the area was subjected to the jurisdiction of the Marquis Pallavicino, already a podestà di Alessandria.

On 6 July 1322 Marco Visconti defeated the Guelph militias led by Captain Raimondo of Cardona. Around the year 1350 it passed under the domination of the Duchy of Milan, while in 1371 peace between the Marchesi of Monferrato and the Visconti was concluded. Several feudal lords were encircled (Beccaria, Della Sala, Bellingeri) until the beginning of the 16th century, Sforza appointed Jason del Majno, jureconsulto di Pavia^[7], feudal lord of Bassignana and Borgofranco^[8]. The fief belonged for some time to the Duchess Beatrice d'Este, through a donation from her husband Ludovico il Moro.^[9]

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the rule of the French and the Spanish was altered. 1707 the whole area was conquered by Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy; the possession of the Savoy was confirmed by the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) and since then Bassignana followed the fate of the Savoy House until the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy.

In Bassignana, during the Austrian Succession War, on 27 September 1745 a battle was fought between the Franco-Spanish army, commanded by Marshal Maillebois, and the Austrian-Piedmont army commanded by General Schullembourg and Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy. The victory surrendered to the Franco-Spanish troops who spread in the Po Valley.

On 12 May 1799, in a further confrontation between the French troops commanded by Count Claude Matthieu Gardane and the Austrian-Russian troops under General Rosemberg and Zubakoff, the victory of the French and General Zubakoff was killed.

In 1855 there were numerous Neptunes who joined the Piedmontese army for the Crimean War.

In 1859, during the Second War of Independence, Bassignana welcomed Napoleon III's Franco-Piedmont army and Victor Emmanuel II for war operations against the Austrian Army. In May 1859 the Piedmont army headquarters was stationed in San Salvatore Monferrato and much of the army was displaced along the bank of the Po, between Casale Monferrato and Bassignana, where the 3rd Division was allocated; on the opposite side the Austrian army body was attested under General Ferencz Gyulai. On May 4, the 3rd Piedmontese Division rejected an attempt by Austrians to cross the Po. A few weeks after these events, the battle of Magenta was fought (4 June 1859) and signed the armistice of Villafranca.

The coat of arms and gonfalone of the municipality of Bassignana were granted by the Royal Decree of 2 March 1931.^[10] The municipal coat of arms is cut into an overthrown scaglione, to the reversed scaglione, of silver, passing on the partition: in the first one of blue, to the castle of gold, equipped with a lateral tower; in the second, of red, to the ears of wheat and to the bunch of golden grapes, placed in an overthrown staircase. Exterior ornaments from Commune.^[11]

The banner is a blue cloth.^[11]

In the last hundred years, starting from 1921, the resident population It's halved..

Inhabitants registered^[12]

Between the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century a strong migration to the United States and Argentina was recorded.^[13]

The patronal feast is celebrated on Sunday after the Madonna del Carmine, on July 16.

• Mugarone is a small town located right of the Po, near the confluence with the Tanaro. Of interest are the Pallavicini Castle and the Fortress (not open to visitors), as well as the church of the Beata Vergine Assunta. The sanctuary of the Madonna del Casato is also of religious interest.^[14]
• Fiondi, a small village about 2 km.

In 1929, as part of the fascist mergers, he incorporated the territories of the common suppression of Rivarone, which regained its autonomy in 1948. From 1859 it was the district capital and part of the district of Alessandria, until the suppression of the district and district bodies in 1927.^[16]