Calamandrana: sights, history and trails

The coat of arms and gonfalone were granted by decree of the President of the Republic of 24 May 1957^[5][6]

The gonfalone is a red and white drape.^[6]

A single road, via Maestra, crosses the old town from east to west, for those coming from the provincial road, going up from Del Pozzo street.

The church of San Sebastiano, recently restored, is located on the left. It was probably built in the 18th century as a Confraternita, it is built in bricks with a deep portico on the façade of the hut, in neoclassical style. It has recently been the subject of restoration. Worth visiting are the frescoes present.

Along the underwater road of the ancient village, you will reach the baroque parish dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. Along with the different Cappelle campestri that stood, by the population, in the farest fractions, it is not difficult to imagine that the presence of the Castle provided a building for Christian worship at the height of noble families who resided here. From the Baroque period, the Church of the Immaculate Conception refers to historical richness and stratification. Its arch and part of the apse are cut out from the ancient walls of the castle. Signed as a parish church since the 18th century, it is named in previous documents as an oratory of the castle and seat of the brotherhood of Disciplinates.

In the “piana” between 1952 and 1953, the new parish church was erected, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, later decorated in 1962 with apsidal paintings by Piero Dalle Ceste and with a precious mosaic.

In the San Giovanni valley, today a hamlet of Calamandrana, stood the Romanesque church dedicated to San Giovanni alle Conche, on top of a low hill. Church rich in historical events, especially during the Middle Ages has changed image over the centuries. The current image of San Giovanni delle Conche is totally changed compared to the primitive. In Romanesque style only remains the apse, which is framed in the right side of the current church. Simmetrically, another apse was built, similar, but smaller and neo-Gothic style, while a third, much higher, placed north, is late Baroque and closes the interior space of the presbytery. A fourth element, the bell tower with a square plan, volumetrically accords the two apses, Romanesque and late Baroque, to the body of the church.

This intersection game then made space within the almost circular building. Inside the walls are decorated with nineteenth-century frescos of popular work; the figures appearing in the Romanesque apse's catin, however, seem to recalcate, in the iconography, precedents and more ancient frescoes. The wall structure of the entire building is brick. Only in the Romanesque apse we find sandstone shells: both in the "throat" frame, placed attic, and in the traditional theory of hanging arches, resting on mensoline, both in the stipetes and false arches, to re-entry glands, of the three windows. Geometric decorations are sculpted on monolithic blocks in which arches and wreaths have been carved. Each of the three fields of the apse is scanned by hysenes that connect to the hanging arches through small capitals, decorated with very stylized phytomorphic drawings, including also a human head. The bricks and the corners are well filled: this fact and shaping of mortar beds indicate restoration interventions not far away.

From August 2020 the Romanesque church of San Giovanni alle Conche in Valle San Giovanni enters the circuit "Chiese a Porte Aperte", promoted by the Regional Consulta for Ecclesiastic Cultural Heritage of Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta, in agreement with the Municipality of Calamandrana. The project, also funded by FCRT and Regione Piemonte, will allow you to visit the church through the use of an App. In fact it will be enough to register for the site www.cittaecattedrali and then download the "Close to Open Doors" App on your mobile phone to book free admission, enter and make a visit listening to the narrating voice (daily from 9.00 to 18.00). In addition to the church of Valle San Giovanni you can visit another 27 places, gathered in six territorial circuits.

The primitive fortified complex was destroyed and immediately rebuilt during the 13th century. The destruction dates back to 1225, when a bloody battle between Astigiani and Alessandrini took place, for supremacy in the valley of Belbo. The Alessandrini, victorious, razed the Calamandrana castle to the ground, considered by them a serious threat. The fortification was rebuilt towards 1237, when the territory returned, definitively, between the properties of Asthesis by Frederick II.

After several feudatories, in 1606 Federico Gonzaga defended his wife, Eleonora de' Medici; it will be only in 1685 that the Duke of Mantua will invest with the title of Count a calamandranese, Francesco Maria Cordara. It is practically due to him the current structure of the castle as it was precisely Count Cordara who made some considerable changes based on the original structure.

The complex suffered significant damage during the earthquake of 1886 and, for fear of a collapse, the loggia was demolished and mowed the octagonal tower, rebuilt then in 1964, by the then owner, Mr. Giambattista Parodi, with hand-made recovery bricks and in a faithful way to what was to be the original, deusable from Gonin prints.

Today the building has a rather irregular planimetric setting and is partly plastered and partly brick and exposed stones. The underground structures are preserved: cellars, walks and the cistern of the ancient fortress. In 1983 it was the renovation of the ceiling of the 19th century living room.

Inhabitants registered^[8]

According to ISTAT data at 31 December 2009, the resident foreign population was 196 people. The nationalities most represented by their percentage of the total population living were:

• Republic of Macedonia 69 3,90%
• Romania 54 3,05%
• Morocco 28 1.58%

• The patronal festival of the Quartino, in August
• Livestock fair, on the first Monday of August
• Calamandrana Alta Festival
• All Saturday mornings at the main square of the village Piazza Dante, "Mercato della Terra Amica" in collaboration with agricultural organizations, where farmers and artisans of the territory sell their products directly to km zero
• Through Festival, July

The main regions or hamlets of Calamandrana are: Boidi, Bruciati, Case Vecchie, Chiesa Vecchia, Ferrai, Garbazzola, Quartino, San Vito, Valle San Giovanni.

• Kisapostag