Volpedo: sights, history and trails

The village is located at the outlet in the Po Valley of the Curone stream, with the plain that opens to the north and the hills surrounding the valley south, dominated by the view of Mount Giarolo. The historical nucleus rises on a hill on the right bank of the stream, around which the walls of the river were built. castrum, which extends towards the watercourse, constituting a fording point towards the opposite bank, on which in fact the bridge was built.

While the center is located about 182 m above sea level., the hamlets and various scattered houses are located on the surrounding hills and can reach the 479 m s.l.m. of Poggio di Brienzone.^[6]

In documents of the 10th century the country is attested with several names: Vicus Piculus, Vicus Peculus, Vipegulus, Vulpeculus, therefore in any case a I'm sorry, that is, a Roman village,^[7] from which the current name.

A sepulchral stele, today nestled in a side wall of the parish church, bears witness to the Roman presence already in the 1st century,^[8] even if the settlement probably dates back to the ancient Ligurian populations.^[9]

The first written memory of the country is 21 August 966,^[10] where the parish church is named, and is then mentioned in other documents of the 10th century as I'm sorry. Also from the same period would be, as well as the parish church, the castrum, the fortified village of which part of the city walls (rebuilt in the 16th century) is still visible today.

On 5 November 979 Emperor Otto II gave Volpedo to the Bishop of Tortona,^[7] By binding the country's fortunes to the city, Volpedo will be rescued during the siege of Federico Barbarossa in 1155.^[7]

In 1347 Tortona passes under the Visconti of Milan, who in 1412 give Volpedo as a fief to the captain of the sale Perino Cameri. The latter, in 1425, gives it to the Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano which allows the village considerable administrative autonomy.^[11]

In 1482, a 8-year-old boy from Volpedo, Giovannino Costa, was found barbariously killed at Casalnoceto. The murder arouses great stir and soon we talk about miracles attributed to the boy, creating his cult.^[12] Local Jews are being blamed and a real pogrom is being seen against them.^[13] The boy, who became blessed, is now the patron of the country.

At the beginning of the duchy of Maximilian Sforza, Ghibelline, the Volpedesis, led by Marquis Bernabò Malaspina, part guelfa, set a fire to the castle of nearby Monleale, destroying it completely. On 12 July 1513 Duke Sforza sent a commissioner to Volpedo to restore order and punishment, the next day with the help of 300 monleales, knocked down the walls of the castrum ^[14] which were rebuilt since 1589 when Milan was under Spanish domination.^[15]

In 1738 Volpedo, along with all the dovenese, passed under the reign of Sardinia. The fief will pass from the Fabbrica del Duomo to the Marquis Filippo Guidobono Cavalchini of Momperone in the 1757. If feudalism had not been abolished in 1797, the fief would finally pass in 1849, Malaspina, since the only daughter of the Cavalchinis marries Luigi Maria Malaspina.^[16]

In 1801, in Napoleonic age, the French authorities appointed Mayor of the Municipality Giovanni Antonio Sovera.^[17]

With the birth of the kingdom of Italy and the introduction of the mandates (from 1859 to 1926), Volpedo becomes the capital of the homonymous commission, including Casalnoceto, Momperone, Monleale, Montegioco, Montemarzino and Pozzol Groppo, as part of the around Tortona.

In the 19th century the physiognomy of the country changes deeply, with the progressive demolition of the walls surrounding the ancient castrum: in 1835 the parish church was enlarged, in 1856 the current bridge on the Curone was built, replacing a wooden one,^[18] and in 1859 the new Municipal Palace.^[19] Only in 1885 will the current road between Monleale and Castellar Guidobono, on which the Tortona-Monleale tramway ran between 1889 and 1933.

Towards the end of the 19th and early 20th century it reaches a certain fame as a spa thanks to the Fonti della Maddalena, where in 1922 a hotel with restaurant will be built. The building, transformed into night clubs after World War II, will be destroyed by a fire in which two children lost in 1979, ending all activities.^[20][21][22]

Between 1929 and 1947 the municipalities Berzano di Tortona, Monleale And Volpeglino they became part of Volpedo.^[23]

In 1935 lawyer Carlo Baravalle, the country's podestà, decided to establish the wholesale fruit market that led to the realization of the covered market in 1936-1937.^[24][25]

Also in 1937 the Lungocurone road was built, which is a new concrete firgine along the creek.^[26]

Between 6 and 7 October 1977 a serious flood fell down on the bottom Piemonte^[27] causes significant damage^[28] to the activities and dwellings along the Curone.

• The main monument of the village is the Romanesque church, already mentioned in documents from the 10th century, remodeled in the 15th century. Inside there are frescoes, some also valuable, attributed to the school of the doves brothers Manfredino and Franceschino Boxilio (XV century - early 16th century)^[31], a school also active at the Milan Cathedral
• Notable is the part that has been saved of the powerful five hundred bastions that enclosed the castrum and which outline the ancient part of the village
• The nineteenth-century parish church of St. Peter the Apostle rises on the place where the house of John Costa was placed, a young shepherd who was barbaricly killed in 1468 and became, as Blessed Giovannino martyr, patron of the country^[32] In the church there is a San Luigino, work by Giuseppe Pellizza from Volpedo (1894)
• In the main square of the town (Piazza della LibertÃ) is the nineteenth-century municipal palace, inside which there is a stone with marble bas-relief that recalls the donation of Volpedo by Perino Cameri to the Fabbrica del Duomo in Milan in the fifteenth century: it is the work of sculptor Jacopino da Tradate
• At the end of the village, towards the cemetery, there is the birthplace and the study by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo. In it are preserved work tools, personal objects, books and also some works of the artist.
• In the area of Cascina Boffalora there is a oak known as a monumental plant, with a stem of about 320–315 cm and a height of 15 m.^[33]
• The former castle converted into a manor residence Palazzo Guidobono Cavalchini Malaspina Penati.

The economy is mainly agricultural. Volpedo has been a great wine producer for centuries^[40] and, from the beginning of the 20th century, following an epidemic of phylloxera that struck the vines, fishing was introduced, in exchange for the mulberry.^[41] Following the realization of the wholesale market in 1935, by the podestà Carlo Baravalle, the name Pesca di Volpedo spread, which will become a trademark since 2008, protected by its consortium^[42] and marketed by the cooperative of producers Volpedo Frutta based in Monleale.^[24]

Below is a table which lists the administrations that have happened in this municipality from the second post-war period to today.

• Italo Cammarata, A Milanese island in Val Curone, Varzi, Guardamagna, 2013, ISBN 978-88-95193-92-2.
• Monsignor Clelio Goggi, History of Municipalities and Parishes of the Diocese of Tortona, 4th ed., Tortona, Litocoop, 2000.