San Giorgio Monferrato: sights, history and trails

The territory of San Giorgio was part of the so-called "district" of Sant'Evasio. The castle of the same name, in its documentary profile, is also to be considered, according to historical merits, the oldest among the castles of Monferrato.

The first evidence, however, in the presence of St. George, is contained in Otto III's diploma of 7 May 999, which confirmed to Leo, bishop of Vercelli, "districtus S. Excavated at Pado usque in Sturam, in Fraxaneto, Paxiliano, Ticinesse, Sarmaza et Sancto Georgio et in Ozano ultra tria miliara".

Federico Barbarossa with a diploma of 1152 from Vitzemburg confirmed to the bishop Vercellese Ugozione the property of the castle and the nascent village.

During the wars between the municipalities of Alessandria, Asti and Vercelli on one side and Boniface I on the other, who made convulse the events of this territory, appeared the Lords of San Giorgio. From that moment on, the history of the castle and the village was closely linked to noble families who succeeded in holding the fief.

In 1216 the castle passed to Roberto Avogadro of Collobiano. However, it is likely that already at the beginning of the fourteenth century the men of San Giorgio were organized in free commune, although we do not know, due to the lack of documents, the degree of autonomy compared to the local state power. For certain, the castle is confirmed to Marquis of Monferrato with the diplomas of Emperor Charles IV, King of Bohemia, 17 March 1355 and 8 March 1359.

To demonstrate the existence of an organized community at the foot of the castle, they certainly contribute to the drafting, in 1393, of the rules of behaviour, the so-called "Statutes". Divided into 94 chapters, they contain rules of civil and criminal law.

Later the castle was one of Lucrezia's dowry, a natural daughter of the Marquis William VIII, who married Bartolomeo del Carretto in 1464. The Marquis Gian Giorgio donated the fief, in 1532, to his natural son Flaminio Paleologo, who died in prison in 1571, accused of having been part of the riots of Oliviero Capello, guilty of attacking the life of Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga.

The manor was also the seat of the Inquisition Tribunal. During the plague epidemic of 1530, the city of Casale Monferrato and his surroundings lived for a decade under the nightmare of the disease. Many people were denounced on the charge of being anointed and tried by a court of the Marquisate, chaired by Commissioner Necco. The court gathered in St George's castle on 17 June 1530 to judge forty people accused of spreading the contagion. The machine of torture managed to tear in questioning delittuous confessions, complicity and delitions. The trial lasted for a month and ended with the death sentence of thirty people guilty of having perpetrated crimes for seven years, from 1522 to 1529, a primacy never more equalled in the history of the untions in Italy.

In 1600 the events of San Giorgio were closely linked with the struggle for the conquest of Casale among the powers that contended the predominance on the peninsula: Savoia, Gonzaga, France and Spain. Anyone who wanted to besiege the city had to, play forcefully, secure control of the hill and conquest of the castle of San Giorgio became a necessary and decisive strategic operation.

Also in the seventeenth century and in the following century an important contribution to the social life of the country was brought by religious brotherhoods, very vital and rissose. These associations of the faithful, organized to exercise works of charity, possessed their own income (chiese and land), the result of the relatives who were beneficiaries.

Towards the middle of the century. XVII the castle, already owned by Gaspare Maria Galeazzi Salvati, passed to Giovanni Gozani who bought it for 2.100 double gold (21.000 Then to the counts Cavalli d'Olivola. In the years50 was purchased by the industrialist Angelo Ricaldone who placed on the entrance door the motto: "Everything was of other people and everything will return to others". Still today the manor is remembered as castle San Giorgio or Ricaldone ^[4].

• Castle
• Parish church

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

The stop of San Giorgio Casale is located along the Castagnole-Asti-Mortara railway, whose traffic has been suspended since 2012.

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  Façade of the church of San Giorgio
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  Monument to the Falls of San Giorgio Monferrato
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  Piazza della Chiesa, in the background the town hall and monument to the fallen of San Giorgio Monferrato
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  Town Hall of San Giorgio Monferrato