Pontecurone: sights, history and trails

Pontecurone is located in the plain of Belluno, on the left bank of the Curone stream, bordering to the east with the Lombardy region. It is located 9 km away Tortona and 30 km from Alessandria.

The village is surrounded by a flat territory intensely cultivated.

Of the 187 municipalities in the province of Alessandria, Pontecurone is the 16th per population, the 29th per surface, the 34th for housing density.

The name comes from the Latin pons Coronis or Pontis Coronis^[4], with clear reference to the bridge over the Curone stream.

The first inhabited nucleus of Pontecurone can be given for certain already in the augustea era — with the reflowering of the Via Postumia (which connected Piacenza to Genoa passing through Voghera, Tortona and Libarna) near the important guado on the Curone — thanks to the discovery of many coins of that time in the territory.

It appears in the Lombard era between the possessions of the Abbey of San Colombano di Bobbio.^[5]

A few years before the Mille (in 962) Otto I donated to the Pavese monastery of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro some possessions including the locality Ponte Coironum: this is the first written testimony of the existence of Pontecurone.

In the Gallery of Geographical Cards to the Vatican Museums (late XVI century), Pontecurone is indicated as Pons Coronis.

In 1635 the army of Odoardo I Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, ally of the French, disembarked the Spanish under the command of Don Gaspare Azevedo, who lost in the fight.

In more recent times, the railway bridge on the Curone has been bombed several times by the Allies during World War II. In fact, the stretch of railway passing to Pontecurone is of great strategic importance since in it pass the tracks both of the line Alessandria-Piacenza and of Milan-Genova.

In the early 20th century, the country's economy was based exclusively on agriculture and livestock farming; in addition to breeding classic animals such as cows, chickens and pigs, especially widespread was silkworm breeding (♪), which fed on the leaves of mulberry trees (Wall) widely present in the countryside to delimit the boundaries of the fields.

The foundation of SOAMS in 1855 (already present), one of the first in the area, however, suggests that the country was active and aimed at progress. In fact, a few years later, in 1858, the arrival of the railway to Pontecurone (thanks to the interest of the Minister Urbano Rattazzi) marks the first steps of a turn that, in the following decades, will make Pontecurone one of the most industrialized countries of the area.

The most developed sector is the production of bricks, already in the second half of the nineteenth century with small furnaces. From the beginning of the 20th century there are further furnaces, larger in size, belonging to the Perseghini families, Azzi (which built the Fornacione, today the seat of the Printed), Signorini. In the 1940s the activity was still very intense, so much so that the brickyard in the center of the town was enlarged and the company was established. P.A.S. (acronym of the surnames Pagano, Azzi, Signorini). The kilns continued to prosper during the years of the economic boom: in the sixties a new kiln, the Valcurone, was opened in the countryside towards Casei Gerola. Unfortunately, a serious crisis subsequently followed, mainly due to the arrival on the market of new products, at more competitive prices, which led to the closure of all the furnaces in the 1980s.

Another important reality was the Cotonificio dei Fratelli Bertollo (becomes later) Cotonificio Bustese, as it is known today): inaugurated in 1902 it provided work to hundreds of people, mostly women, until its definitive closure in 1996.

Today the most important industrial reality in Pontecurone is constituted by the companies of the group Piber, leader in the production of plastic containers.

• Spring Day: mid-April
• AVIS Festival: mid-June
• Onion Sagra: grill, fried and onion soup. First edition in 1991. The 1st weekend of September, curated by Pro-Loco
• Let's get together: the first Sunday of October

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

The historic football club of the country is U.S. Pontecurone, founded in 1925. He reached his football peak in the 1996/1997 season and played the championship of Excellence from which he immediately returned. At the end of the 2010/2011 championship, he was backed by the Second Category but was repeated to complete the organics and then close the Company at the end of the next season.^[13]

The only remaining team is the Aurora Pontecurone, which plays in Terza Category.

The footballer Giuseppe Arezzi, active in the 1930s-1940s during which he dressed prestigious jerseys like those of Inter and Alessandria, is native to Pontecurone.

There are also a Fishing Association and a cycling group in Pontecurone.