Grazzano Badoglio: sights, history and trails

The shield in the center of the coat of arms is the emblem of Monferrato. The black and gold bandage reminds the domain of the dukes Gonzaga of Mantua.

The Aleramic Abbey, today Parish of Grazzano Badoglio, is of significant architectural importance. In the year 961 Marquis Aleramo I of Monferrato founded, on the hill where today the church stands, an abbey that entrusted to the Benedictines who remained there for over four centuries.

The Romanesque bell tower, to which in 1910 a sopraelevation was added; the portico of the old parish house with balcony; the cloister, today renovated and reported to the ancient splendours; the octagonal apse visible from the outside (inside there were remodelling).

The greatest au pair of Aleramic Abbey was between the 12th and 15th centuries. By decree 16 August 1802 the secular aleramic abbey was suppressed by Napoleonic legislation, but the abbot continued to reside in the country under the title of "parroco citizen" (perpetual vine). The current church, dedicated to the Saints Vittore and Corona was built in the 16th century, but underwent various renovations and modifications as well as renovations.

The parish church is adjacent to the abbey where you can see the balcony of the abbey house, the bell tower in Romanesque style, the portal dated 1766. In the chapel of the Rosary there is the tomb of Aleramo del Monferrato, which gave rise to Monferrato, remembered praying in the fresco attributed to Guglielmo Caccia, known as Il Moncalvo.

The tomb was transferred from the peristyle of the ancient abbey church to the side chapel of the parish, is decorated with an ancient mosaic in black and white^[7] depicting two monstrous animals that face each other: on the left a sphinx ("woman winged" in the front, in the middle of "liberating and wild lion", and "drago winding" in the back, corresponding to the one described by Mesomede^[8] poet lived at the time of Emperor Hadrian), on the right a lion dragon aptero in aggressive attitude with the crest on the head and the three characteristic emblematic lines on the neck.

The chapel of the Gonzaga is in baroque style with a painting representing "the death of St. Francis Xavier" by Andrea Pozzo, and a painting of the Madonna covered with a pink coat always of the Moncalvo. A great cross overcomes the altar. The wooden choir of '500 is adjacent to the sacristy in which the relic arm of San Vittore is guarded, which is carried in procession on 14 May.

In the chapels, some of which still retain the original stuccoes, you can still admire paintings of considerable interest. In this context, we are prepared to remember the Madonna immaculate by Guglielmo Caccia. It is attributed to the Hunt also the frescoed portrait over the tomb of Aleramo.

To mention the church of the Holy Spirit^[9] and the church of Madonna dei Monti^[10]

In the outermost complex remained intact of the Aleramic Abbey, there is a Roman funerary tombstone of the 2nd century AD, probably one of the most important in Piemonte in his own kind. This monument was affixed by the living anchor T. Vettius Hermes (Tito Vezio Ermete), whose surname of Greek origin denotes its libertine condition, as the profession of trader of perfumes (Seplasarius).

The stone bears its will in which it has that its heirs, who will use its gardens and keep its ashes, carry in perpetual roses to his grave in the anniversary of his death and that the property is neither fractionated nor divided. The writing takes place in Latin language by abbreviations used at that time for this type of document.

In the upper part of the lapid is known the tympane framing a vase of grapes and two birds in the act of catching. There are two dolphins on the timpane's edges worked in bas-relief. Below runs a smooth band at whose ends are the letters V.F (Vivus Fecit) meaning "done while he was alive". Below you can see two pilasters with rods and a frieze with festoon motifs and almost completely abraded bas-relief heads that frame the inscription.

The Latin inscription reads:

V(ivus)f(ecit) T.Vettius T.l.Hermes seplasarius Mater genuit materq (ue) transepit. Hi horti ita uti o(ptimi) m(aximi) que sunt cineribus servite meis: nam curatores substituam, uti vescantur ex horum hortum nata meo et per [fortassesse] fer (ant) rosam forever. Hos hortos neque divide flight neq (ue) abalienari.

In Grazzano is the monument erected to the memory of Pietro Badoglio, consisting of a 24 meters high wire stem supported by a tripartite granite base and equipped with a lantern at the top. The work was carried out on the initiative of a committee promoted by the Pininfarina industrial to honor the memory of the Marshal friend and chaired by the then Minister of Defense Giulio Andreotti. The monument, designed by the Turinese architect Amedeo Albertini, is located in "Madonna dei Monti" and was inaugurated on 27 September 1964;^[11] the three relief friezes that adorn the base are the work of Virgilio Audagna, sculptor from Turin. After a period of abandonment the monument and the small surrounding park have been recovered by some companies in the area, which since 2017 they care for its maintenance.^[12]

The Badogliano Historical Museum is housed in the birthplace of the Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio, in via Badoglio 20, along the main street of the village. The Museum is organized on seven halls and two corridors and each one is dedicated to a theme or a significant period of the life of the marshal with a wide photographic, pictorial and objective documentation. The museum is home to the Children's Asylum "Antonietta Badoglio", active from 1937 to 1988 but still open to visitors.

Current residents are about one third of those present in 1921.

Inhabitants registered^[13]