Cabella Ligure: sights, history and trails

Cited in documents of the 12th century, it was a fief of Opizzino Spinola. He then moved to the Genoese families of Pallavicino and Doria. Luigi Centurione Scotto, Count of Montaldo in Monferrato (1629), acquired in the first half of '600 the fief of Fontanarossa. The son Barnaba V (-1671) in 1653 divided with his brother Carlo the paterni fiefs (the latter received Morsasco, Visone and Campi) and held for himself the county of Montaldo, Prati di Carpeneto (Murferrini faith), Fontanarossa; in 1644 acquired the Marquisate of Morbello in Monferrato. Having no male heir leaves her daughter Joan heir, 1657 brought to the husband Gerolamo IV Spinola, Marquis of Cabella and Cremonte (inherited by the half-brother Felice II Pallavicini, through his mother Paola Maria Centurione, sister of the aforementioned Luigi Count of Montaldo), Pej and a quota of Pregòla (1660) and all the fiefs of the father with the obligation for the offspring to maintain the double surname of Spinola-Pallavicini. In fact, Felice II Pallavicini, Marquis of Cabella (1647) and Cremonte (1563), devoid of male heirs, leaves the mother Paola faculty to choose among her half-brothers a heir of the family. The choice then falls on Gerolamo Spinola, son of the second husband of his mother, who with Pallavicini goods constitutes the branch of the Pallavicini Spinola. At Gerolamo IV and Giovanna succeeds in 1697 the son Felice (-1736) which will fight after 1730 to maintain feudal autonomy against the centralist policy of King Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy who imposed the "ligio" oath of vasalization to all the feudal lords of the area. The son Barnabas (-1772), blind from birth and devoid of heirs, leaves the administration of the goods first to his mother Livia Pallavicini and then to his cousin Giovan Carlo Pallavicini, son of Marquis Paolo Gerolamo III (-1746) Lord of Masone, Sassello, Mombaruzzo. These have rented the fiefs of Morbello and Montaldo and then, nominated testamentary successor, the 30 July 1753 receives Cabella, Cremonte, Fontanarossa and from 1759 Montaldo, too. Giovan Carlo or Giancarlo Pallavicini, who is the commander of the Republic during the Austrian succession war against the Austro-Sardi, is so universal heir to Barnabas' death in 1772. He then became the owner of an important real estate and feudal property, summed up with his own family (Marchesati di Morbello, Casalotto, Mombaruzzo, counte di Montaldo e Quaranti, lordship of Masone and barony of Frignano, and from 1756 receives from his wife, Maria Giovanna Grimaldi, the aleramic lordship of Rezzo dei Clavesana); 24 July 1783 decides to sell the fiefs of Cabella, Cremonte and Fontanarossa to Prince Andrea IV Doria Pamphili of Torriglia for the sum of 750 000 Genoese liras, while Morbello and Montaldo leave them to his son Paolo Gerolamo IV who will be invested in 1795. Part of the Ligurian Republic and then of the Napoleonic Empire, passed to the Kingdom of Sardinia with the Congress of Vienna (1815), assumed the name "Ligure" when he joined the province of Alessandria following the administrative reform Rattazzi. Cabella Ligure, like other centers of the Borbera Valley, was subject to a strong emigration, first towards the Americas and then towards the great industrial cities of Northern Italy. Among the native emigrants of the country there is also the maternal grandmother of Pope Francis.^[5] In 1956, the villages of Dova Superioree di Dova Inferiore were annexed to the municipality.

Palazzo Doria (formerly Spinola Pallavicino) dominates the village with an imposing quadrangular plant with protruding angle contrasts. Of medieval origin, it was totally restored in the 17th century by the Doria family. Today it is private property of the Sahaja Yoga community, founded by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi.

The church of San Lorenzo, founded in 1607, was rebuilt and decorated again in 1876 on impulse of the Spinola family.

Of the Castle of Cremonte, built in the 10th century by the bishops of Tortona, there are no remains today that the remains of the base of a large circular tower.

This country is part of the culturally homogeneous territory of Four provinces (Alessandria, Genoa, Pavia, Piacenza), characterized by common habits and customs and by an important repertoire of music and dance very ancient. A prince instrument of this area is the Apennine piffer that accompanied by accordion, and once from the müsa (apennine clomuse), guides dances and animates parties.

Cabella is connected to Novi Ligure thanks to the bus line managed by the company Autolinee Val Borbera, coming downstream along the Strada Provinciale 140 of Val Borbera, which ends in Cabella.

Below is a table relating to the administrations that have succeeded one another in this municipality.