Carezzano: sights, history and trails

The name of Carezzano Superiore and Inferior — two omonymous countries, with separate identities — derives from the aggglutination of the two words of the archaic Liguria car ("high ground") e San Francisco ("place"), hence, therefore, "place on the hill". The definition most clearly refers to the upper village which, not surprisingly, is believed to have arisen much earlier than the village of the same name located further down, to which it however succumbed, over time, in terms of consistency and importance. Carezzano Inferiore, or Maggiore, in fact, was the capital of the domain called il "Bishopric" by Tortona from the end of the 14th century to that of the 16th. The Bishop kept his curia, his court, his vicar, his prisons. On the neighbouring hill of Castiglione were made the capital judgments: among others, three women from nearby Val Magra were burned by witchcraft in the summer of 1520, after a dramatic process in the square. In his constituency, in Vezzano, where the Vettii had their own villa, an ancient parish church was built, already documented in the 12th century. In the 15th century, the famous convent of which some structures and the Romanesque bell tower survive will overlap.

They are originating in Carezzano the families of:

Sesto Canegallo (Sestri Ponente 1892 – Carezzano 1966) graduated from the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti of Genoa, originally a divisionist painter, after his transfer to Milan he was halfway between divisionism and futurism. He successfully exhibited audiences and critics in Rome, Genoa, Paris.

Ella Tambussi Grasso (Windsor Locks, 1919 – Hartford, 1981) was the first female governor in the history of the United States of America; he authoritatively administered Connecticut from 1975 to 1980 when he had to resign for serious health reasons; US President Ronald Reagan awarded her in 1984 of the prestigious Medal of Freedom posthum; from 1993 his name is Women.

Pietro Lorenzo Schiavi - Founded in the native country, in 1672, a charitable institution whose income is intended to support children of needy families. The Opera Pia Schiavi, which from the promoter will take its name, is endowed with a statute in September 1875 and operates in Carezzano until 1934.^[4][5]

The municipality was born from the merger of the municipalities of Carezzano Inferiore and Carezzano Superiore in 1928.

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

• Sergio Pagano, The temporal reasons of a bishop, Rome, 2000.
• Gian Carlo Vaccari, Carezzano, ancient capital of the Vescovato di Tortona, Ovada, 2007.
• Gian Carlo Vaccari, The witches of Val Magra, a 16th century process in the Vescovato di Tortona, Ovada, 2003.
• Sergio Pagano, The warning of the flames, Selci-Lama, 2019.

Further reading

• (THE) Statue Carezzani capitis terrarum episcopatus civitatis Derthonae, 1683.