"The Francigena of Sigerico Way" - Ivrea -
Canavesian Municipalities
| IVREA |
Not Canavesian Municipalities
The run of the Via Francigena Canavesana, begins to Pont Saint Martin town posts to the entry of the Autonomous Region of the Valley of Aosta and precisely from the bold Bridge Romano, said also "of the devil", characterized by an only arcade on the stream Lys, that goes down from the glaciers of the Rosa Mountain.
Built in the I° sec. B.C. the bridge remained the only connection among the two banks of the stream up to 1836, year in which was built, a little far, a bridge in wood then replaced in 1876 by the actual one, modifying the ancient use of the road with the demolition of the ramp of access.
On the western side of the Bridge there is the "House of the toll" belonged to the Lords of Pont Saint Martin which demanded on the commodities in transit, toward the Duchè of Aoste, a payment. The hinges of the front door and the passers-by are still well visible in stone.
The Lords De La Handed, happened to the privilege to the Accounts of Bard taken over to the Lords of Pont Saint Martin after their extinction, from 1500 they received the toll up to the 1783.
Going down from the bridge in direction you meets the statue in stone of the "Madonna of the Watch" that it points out with the finger the relative Sanctuary toward Perloz.
The road that connects Pont Saint Martin with Carema, first Piedmontese Commune, it goes up again for the first part, to the Roman epoch while the rest of the same one has gone lost, englobed in the new constructions of amplification of the urban fabric and from the new use of the road.
Leaving the center of Pont Saint Martin we meet, in the homonym fraction, her "Iron Chapel" devoted to Sant'Erasmo.
Already quoted in a four hundred document, some Chapel officially speaks to an action of pastoral visit of the Bishop in the 1557.
You believes that the chapel has been founded from the Benedictine monks and in 1639 it is found already quoted with the name of "Cappella Frà" that could mean, with a certain reliability, founded by the monks.
For which the name Iron Chapel, appeared only in 900, it could probably be an error of translation from the Piedmontese to Italian.
To support of this thesis must be remembered that the fraction is still denominated by the local populations "Convent".
The paintings of the eighteenth-century (period in which the entry was created toward the road, while in origin was directed to east) façade were covered in 1928 by the actual ones.
The door of entry is in graven walnut-tree and is dated 1729 as the furniture of the sacristy.
To the inside, a valuable statue of the Madonna with child of 1600 and two ostensoris that contain the relics of Sant' Erasmo, given by the Bishop of Gaeta.
Sant' Erasmo is the protector of the giving birth ones and the sick of stomach, in memory of the tortures from him you suffer.
The road that we are crossing is the ancient road of the GALLIE then become "Royal Road".
Just because of the great transit that anciently bore, here a station of standstill was found with change of the horses, service of blacksmith and inn where it was also asset an oven for the bread; the inn became then, to end eight hundred, the famous one "Wine cellar of the Alps".
Gone out of Pont Saint Martin is started us toward the Canavese in the Province in Turin, Region Piedmont.
The built-up area area of CAREMA is historically situated in an area of border between Italy and Gallia in Roman epoch, between Kingdom of Italy and Kingdom Borgognone in the medioevo and between Piedmont and Valley of Aosta in recent epoch.
Some historical news makes to go up again the toponym Carema to "Cameram" that is customs: it seems in fact that here a toll was paid on the commodities in transit from the Gallies toward Italy and vice versa.
The fertile basin Caremese is situated on the left of the river Dora Baltea, to the shelter from the cold winds and behind the mountain with orientation southwest, these conditions have produced a favorable microclimat to the cultivation and the development of the grapevine, whose diffusion has created a radical transformation of the landscape.
The creation of terracing, with the construction of walls of support and the secular job of transport of fertile ground from the low part of the territory, has produced the unique landscape that we today see, marked by the characteristic pillars in stone and mortar you dictate "Pilun" that, besides furnishing support to the structures of the "toppie", they have the function to store the heat of the sun during the day and to return him/it in the night to the vegetation.
This whole human interventions in the centuries has allowed the cultivation of the grapevine from which famous wine is produced "Carema" considered one of the greatest Italian wines and among the first Piedmontese to confer upon of the D.O.C.
We enter the territory of Carema from the ancient path that climbs to the chapel of St. Rocco, erect in the XVII° Sec. in honor of the Saint that protected the local populations from the plague.
The particular position in which the construction is found, offers a splendid vision on the Basin Caremese. The chapel of St. Rocco and the chapel Siei, sets on the other side of the basin that entertains the built-up area center, the two is considered "sentinels" of the Caremese Basin.
The built-up area area of Carema typically preserves the urbanistic formulation medieval sort of narrow roads that are woven among set houses the one to the others.
Crossing the streets of the ancient suburb is possible to meet a lot of residences that have maintained the native constructive characteristics: you wall up in stone to sight, arcs to everything sixth, balconies in wood said "lobbie", portals with great square stones and roofs covered by plates of stone.
Entering the tall part of the built-up area center we meet the fountain of street Basilia, made to build in 1571 from the Accounts of Challant-Mandruzzo, complimentary to the Dukes of Savoia.
On has her of the stele, that the ample tub overhangs in stone, they are graven four coats of arms heraldic and different writings in Latin: next to the coat of arms Sabaudo is seen a Latin writing that means "If someone is thirsty comes from me and drinks" and besides "Have pity of us, Jesus Maestro ". The Church of Carema was already parish in 1261 was rehandled during the centuries. A going up again ancient part to the 1749 amplification remains in Baroque style today, on a Gothic original structure probably.
The last amplifications and modernizations go up again to the 1890.
The construction is tall over 20 meters and long 36, enter you from the before staircase in stone. Inside the Baroque part there is the greatest altar with the figure of St. Martin on a glass polycromic door; worthy of note they are the four side altars.
The bell tower "architectural Masterpiece" only in his/her kind in Piedmont, you/he/she was entirely built in the years 1762-1769 in stone, the bell tower is tall 60 meters.
The parish Church is devoted to St. Martin, while, done curious, the parish Church of Pont Saint Martin is devoted to St. Lawrence instead.
After the parish Church we meet the ancient one "Chapel of the Suplin" going up again to 1649, belonged to the Brotherhood of the SS. Sacrament, which presided and accompanied the funeral rites.
To notice on the Romanesque façade jambstones in "inverted drop" typical of the medieval Valdostano. The building is in phase of recovery, important jobs of restoration are in progress.
Next to the Chapel the fountain of St. Matteo is found with the most ancient dating in the Suburb, you can read the date 1460.
In the proximities it rises the mansion of the Ugonetis, local center of the important family of the Ugonis or Hugoneti, feudal of Carema which also possessed the Castle of Castruzzone (Castrum-Ugonis) placed in dominant position and of which the ruins remain above the fraction of Airale.
Going out of the country we meet the thick denominated strong house "Gran Masun" of epoch stop medieval the building had a defensive function for the Suburb and was center of the local garrison. It administered you the justice and it was also perhaps the ancient jail.
On the façade, under the last window alof, it is visible a coat of arms Sabaudo with four different sketches and, under the moulding, rests of sculptures and other coats of arms. We now go down through the vineyards toward the fraction Togliana, small built-up area center also it very ancient on the old road of the Gallies.
We go beyond the rocky spur of the "Bardeisa", natural obstruction on Baltea Gilds that licked up it once forcing the ancient road to climb over it to half coast under the control of the Castle of Castruzzone which demanded a toll of it.
We now cross for a brief line the National 26 toward the fraction of Airale. Crossed the stream Chiussuma, we direct there toward Tower Daniel fraction of the Commune of Seventh Vittone, that according to a local tradition would have had origin in the V° Century from a convent of Benedictine monks whose founder would have called note Daniel.
On the small suburb it polls the tall bell tower that faces the church of S. Pietro of ancient origin but reconstructed in 1845.
Attraversiamo il caratteristico abitato con le sue abitazioni in pietra e la sua stradina selciata che it and we direct there toward the suburb of Cesnola.
The village has abandoned in a basin rich in vineyards and dominated by the suggestive ruins of an ancient built castle and then widened between the XI° and the XIII° Century.
The feud of Cesnola belonged in the tall Middle Ages to the Lords of Scaffold and in the XIV° Sec. it passed to the Lords of Seventh Vittone.
The country of Cesnola owes its celebrity to the family Palm invested in the 1789 of the feud of Cesnola by Vittorio Amedeo III° of Savoia.
The first Count of Cesnola was Emanuele Palma to whose child Alerimo, republican, conspirator, exile and fighter for the liberty, the popular Street has been entitled Palm of Ivrea, the ancient one "Cardex maximus" of the Roman Eporedia, now Street Four Martyrs.
Leaving the last buttresses of the Alps, we reach Seventh Vittone where the fertile lowland Canavesana opens before one’s eyes.
From here the great Morainic Amphitheater begins , left by the withdrawal of the enormous glacier Balteo.
We find us of forehead to a glacial geologic conformation of the age Pleistocena it mediates among the best preserved to the world, that extends itself with the morainic Serra of Ivrea, long around 25 Km., up to the lake of Viverone, residual of a going up again very ampler lake basin once to the Pleistocene.
Settimo Vittone, center of a primitive village of the Bleedings, developed already in the following period to the Roman conquest and particularly after the construction, happened in the 1° Sec. B.C., of the road of connection among Eporedia and August.
The name "Settimo" (seventh) points out as the suburb it rose "to septimum lapidem" that is to the seventh Roman mile of the road of the Gallies. The toponym Vittone was added in medioeval epoch.
The medioeval history of the installation, has been clarified never completely, it is narrated that Ansgarda, Queen of France, repudiated by her husband Ludovico the Balbo, withdrew herself near her brother Attone Anscario, Marquis of Ivrea and Lord of Seventh.
She would have died then here in the 889 in concept of holiness and buried in the attached baptistery to the castle.
In the 898 it also died in his fortitude of Settimo her brother, which would have been buried in the Church near the hospice for wandering from him founded in the low part of the Suburb.
From the XI Sec. Seventh Vittone depended on the Bishop of Ivrea up to 1357 when after alternate stories was surrendered to Amedeo Vi of Savoia.
Climbing to the castle from the underlying suburb an ancient paved road is crossed from the hatfuls of the Via Crucis; from this it is accessed the church square of the Church of the Madonna of the Graces that is found in the proximities of the castle.
The ancient castle, castled on a spur of rock in the XVI Sec., was made to dismantle from the Duke of Savoia Charles III for strategic motives.
Of the ancient medieval fortitude he can still see the ruins of a tower and, to the left of the portal of entry, some friezes in cooked that decorated the windows.
The part of building that extends toward the valley was reconstructed as residential villa between 600 and the 700.
In the park of the castle the complex is found tall-Middle Ages of the Parish of St. Lawrence constituted from the Baptistery and from the Church that it was parish up to the 1661.
The Church with unique classroom, with plant in Latin cross and three rectangular chapels, contains valuable cycles of frescos of the X° and XIV° Century. The baptistery of St. Giovanni (IX°. X° Sec. ), connected to the Church, is divided in eight nicchionis, with square apse and a small assistant bell tower in following (XIII° Century) epoch.
The place is protected by the FAI (Italian Environment Found)
Going down from the castle toward Montestrutto, is crossed a suggestive path it, that offers a vision of as the territory, from inhospitable, covered with fractured rocks and smoothed by the action of the glacier, has been acquired by the agriculture with the secular job of the tenacious local inhabitants, which through terracing of various ampleness and works of drain and regulation of the waters, with careful recovery of every usable surface for the agriculture, you/they have drawn what today we see.
You reaches so her "Balma", ancient and characteristic construction in stone that exploits as roof, an imposing rock to start.
You meets then the chapel of St. Giovanni Evangelista, small votive chapel widened in 1724 and, after a beautiful line of wood, it introduces us on a mule track paved in cobblestones i to favor the passage of the load sleighs that they transported to valley the mineral one extracted by a overseer mine. The intersection of the sleighs was insured from a line of double footstep, one for the slope and one for the descent.
We meet then the alternative that brings to the ancient cemetery of Montestrutto (in use up to 1902) and the Church of St. Giacomo in Romanesque style that has suffered in the centuries some changes that you/they have conferred her an architectural identity.
Above of it polls the reconstructed castle of Montestrutto on a site used since the X° Sec.. They have news in 1221 during her "War of the millstones " between Ivrea and Vercelli.
The old destroyed castle in the XVI° Sec. during the wars between French and Spaniards, you/he/she was reconstructed then to the beginning of 1900 in style neo-Gothic of the XIV°. XV° Century.
You goes down therefore in the ancient suburb of Montestrutto meeting the "fountain dle sape" (fountain of the hoes) drawn in the rock and used as drinking trough for goats and sheep and from the farmers to inflate in the water the handles of the hoes.
The washing-trough of the Suburb is finally reached with a beautiful tub in stone.
Through the country it’s now reached the fraction of St. German in the Commune of BORGOFRANCO. Shortly after the fraction, to around two kilometers from the built-up area center, in the place Quinto of S. German, we meet a series of characteristics denominated constructions "Balmetti".
These set buildings and directly built at times to contact with the extreme edges of the Serra of Ivrea, have been turned since the XVIII Sec. to the maintenance of the agricultural products and particularly of the wine.
In the last glaciation the enormous tension of the great glacier Balteo, that pressed on the rock, has created a series of fractures producing faults and landslides of collapse of great quantities of rocks. The rain and the superficial veins insinuated in the cracks during the time and in the voids provoking the spillage of constant tides of air said "Hours" (from the Latin "aura", breeze, puff) which have created an area with a microclimate having temperature (7-8°) and constant damp.
The buildings directly built on the hollow from which blow the "hours" tare lent in optimal way, to the maintenance of the wine and the alimentary and cheese products.
The Balmetti constitute an interesting example of spontaneous architecture in the respect of the environment and of the economic and social function. They also have a function of meeting, of aggregation of party as names of the roads testify ; the road of the good mood, of Bacchus, of the Cup. In fact the constructions are never used as permanent residences: the low part, built above the "hour", is today still turned to local for the maintenance of the products and the superior part as local of meeting and aggregation between the friends and acquaintances.
The origin of BORGOFRANCO goes up again to the XIII° Sec. from the fusion of three small centers: Quinto, Monbueno and Biò.
Because of the contrasts between the Church and the Commune of Ivrea March 5 th 1251 the inhabitants of the three suburbs gathered him to erect a place strengthened Suburb - frank that prevented the continuous raids of the Vercellesis through the Serra and to hold to brake the interferences of the squires of Cesnola, Castruzzone, Settimo Vittone and Montestrutto.
They built therefore a shelter between 1256 and 1277, patron the Marquis of the Monferrato whose influence on Ivrea was strong.
The suburb was endowed with ample privileges to the purpose to attract new inhabitants besides the families of the three villages founders.
Traces of the native structure urbanism of Borgofranco they are still found in the historical center, quadrilateral to regulate that has for axle Marini Street.
To the side north still exists a tower of medieval origins that, raised in following epoch, currently acts from bell tower.
For about two centuries the suburb succeeded, with alternate stories, to maintain own autonomy in comparison to the attempts of the Savoias.
In 1573 it began the division in feuds for various noble of court among which, in 1623, the Genoese noble Claudio Marini, chamberlain of the King of France and ambassador at the Savoias, which it had an important building of around 1900 square meters surface to build with a vast garden.
The south part of the building still dresses again also a notable architectural interest for the visible decorations. The building was residence of the family up to its extinction in the 1720.
To the entry of the adjacent to suburb the tower medieval we find the Parish Church devoted Maurice to the Madonna of the Rosary and the Saints and German erected in the 1663.
We now cross the suburb in direction of Biò and we take the old road for Montalto Dora which crossing a beautiful wood down in the valley emerges near the built-up area center.
MONTALTO DORA rises in a zone of notable naturalistic interest and great charm, to the slopes of the morainic hills that contain some romantic little ponds among the reliefs, in the depressions left by the ancient glacier Balteo.
The built-up area center is overhung from a castle described as "one of the most important and clear" fortifications of the whole Canavese.
The suburb of Montalto has ancient origins: archaeological finds testify the human presence in the zone, already in neolitich epoch.
The first documentary news, nevertheless, refers to 1044 as it results from a document of the Bishop of Ivrea.
The region, very aspired because place of transit toward the valleys of the north and therefore key point for the control of the commerce and the transits, was cause of contrasts and struggles for the whole medieval epoch.
To the beginning of the XIV° Secolo, with the extension of the dominion of the Savoias on Ivrea and on the zone north of the relative territory, the suburb of Montalto became a feud passed then to various noble families tied Sabauda domination. The historical center of medieval imprint clearly preserves in its inside examples of rural architecture countersigned by galleries to more floors leaned out on inside courtyards.
Going out of Montalto toward the Lake Pistono you go beyond Villa Casana surrounded by a vast park, inside which an imposing cedar of the Atlas is visible that was probably planted in the first years of the eight hundred; its age would owe therefore to wander around the 170-180 years. The tree is tall around thirty meters and the trunk it measures a circumference of around 6,5 meters.
We are now approaching there to the imposing fortitude of Montalto, its primitive construction goes up again around the XI sec. and certain its structure didn't appear as we see today, more probably was constituted from a tower endowed with a defensive enclosure.
It was therefore, during the XIV° - XV° sec., that the castle was submitted to tense rehashes to improve the defensive works that brought to the imposing structure of it that today we see.
Following the seventeenth-century conflicts fortitude suffered notable damages to its inside, while the building structure and the towers saved themselves. At the end of the eight hundred and the first ones of the Nine hundred the castle was restored on project of the Of Andrade that safeguarded its native aspect.
In the underlying zone another construction of dimensions is seen reduced datable around the XV sec., of quadrangular form with “Guelph” battlement as the castle. Entirely built in stone,this building includes a baronial building turned then to body of watch on the street of access to the fortitude.
In proximity of the castle we meet the Chapel of St. Rocco built toward the end of the XII sec. near a precedent votive pylon devoted to St. Sebastiano, widened in the XIII sec.
The chapel contains in the apse admirable fourteenth-century frescos.
The consecration of the chapel to St. Rocco is perhaps tied to the Seventeenth-century period in which a terrible epidemic of bubonic plague broke out and decimated the populations, the Saint then was invoked as healer of the disease.
Just in the high ground on which the castle has been built, it passes so said "Line Insubrica of the Canavese".
It deals with the intersection between the terrestrial surface and a plan of glide present in the Alpine arc along which the collision is verified among two continental sod: the European (to north) sod and the African (to south) sod in an arc of time between 135 and 25 million years.
Among the two floors of fracture the rocks of the zone of the Canavese appear on the surface; they are constituted by a plinth of continental crust and by deposits accumulated to the fund of a sea depression. Said materials have been compressed and lifted during the collision among the aforesaid sod that resulted in the formation of the Alps.
We reach the Lake Pistono, of glacial origin. Dipped in a suggestive landscape, the lake is fed by the waters coming from fountains of the Serra and from the region of the ancient lake Rabbit, now completely absorbed.
The lake has preserved for millennia, in its waters, the rests of a human installation of the period Neolithic (4500 B.C.) with the presence of a considerable group of finds: axes, millstones, net weights and ceramics, doing part of an pile-structure installation individualized in the small peninsula overlooking the mirror of water.
We cross the path that surrounds it and that offers enchanting landscapes, so we arrive to the Chapel of Saint Cross been probably born as private chapel of the tied up agricultural estate to the great neighboring farmhouse, debatably restructured.
The most ancient document that testifies the existence of the same one is a found Mass-book missal inside the chapel that brings the date 1682.
Through hilly woods we go up toward the small Chapel of St. Pietro Martire and we enter the territory of Ivrea.
Going down toward the city we see the Lake Sirio (0,315 Kmqs.) the greatest of the complex of the five lakes of which we have already met the Lake Pistono. The other ones are: the Lago Nero, the Lago san Michele and the Lago di Campagna, some of which we will meet subsequently.
We cross the ancient Street Sant'Ulderico that brings us to the entry of the City of IVREA, the ancient one "Yporegia" then Eporedia.
The origin of the ancient name derives from the Celtic populations that lived the zone before the Roman invasion, taut to make sure the dominion of the area and therefore the control of the alpine passes. In the attempt of conquest of the territory the Romans suffered one hard defeat to demonstration of the value of the fairs Celtic-Salassi populations that lived there. After various attempts, also without succeeding in dominating completely the local populations, in the year 100 to.C. the Roman colony of Eporedia was founded.
The fall of the Roman empire of West, subsequently began the invasions and barbaric dominations and the city was included in one of the Longobard Dukedoms of the region that also understood the Diocese of Vercelli.
Taken over the dominion of the Franchis, Ivrea was center of county as it appears in a capitulary of the emperor going up Lotario I° in the year 825.
Toward the end of the IX sec., finished the Carolingian age, the Brand of Ivrea was assigned to Anscario I° that it began the Anscarica dynasty of the X Century.
The territory of themarquis reached so its definitive expression to stop with the ascent of Arduino.
Close to the figure, for many verses mysterious and legendary, of Arduino came to stand out that as many symbolic of the Bishop Warmondo, cultured and energetic man of the family of the Arborios.
To the beginning of the year Thousand with the disappearance of Arduino every trace of the Marchland of Ivrea was lost ; it was reorganized among the heirs which practised a politics of open opposition toward the great Lineages Imperial foreigners.
In 1026, Conrad of Franconia the Salico conquered the city and during the remainder XI sec. some Episcopal Power was seen to consolidate itself.
In the second half of the XII sec. a series of wars were followed with the city of Vercelli for the repeated attempts of expansion of this and for the contrasts on the tolls related to the deriving commodities from beyond the Alps through the Valley of Aosta.
Fred Barbarossa, with the politics to restore in full the Imperial authority, installed in the castle of Ivrea the marquis Ranieri of Biandrate.
From the violent contrast that these had with the Episcopalian and Town strengths, a popular insurrection was born between 1193 and 1195 that brought to expulsion of the Biandrate and the destruction of the ancient castle of St. Maurice.
In the XIII Century it’ is recorded to consolidate some autonomy of the Commune and the promulgation of the Statutory Laws.
In the 1266 Guglielmo VII° of Monferrato succeeds in getting the devotion of the city, in 1271 the Dominion Monferrina is shortly interrupted by the domination of the King of Sicily Charles of Angiò.
The return of the Aleramicis lasted up to 1313, when the City swore fidelity to the House Savoia.
In the 1357-58 Amedeo of Savoia, only uncontested gentleman of Ivrea, began the construction of the new important castle placed side by side the Cathedral, the Episcopalian building and the City Hall.
In the XIV Century the Savoias, after the weary struggles for the consolidation of the power, owed face the great popular revolt of the Tuchinaggio that was concluded in Ivrea in 1391 with the convention wanted by the Count Amedeo VII° of Savoia also known as "Green Count".
With this story the golden age for Ivrea was closed,in the following centuries the provincial dimension became evident.
We now enter the city from the ancient door of access from Aosta, the door "Fountain", and we take the old street Palma of Cesnola, ancient "Cardex Maximum" of the Roman city.
From this we go up again on an ancient ramp paved that it brings to the plaza of the castle that was erected as already said by the Green Count in the 1358.
Fortitude had above all defensive purposes, it rises in fact in the tall part of the city in strategic position.
To build the castle was necessary to flatten part of the interested zone and to demolish therefore some houses and religious buildings, the jobs concluded between 1393 and the 1395.
In 1676 a lightning destroyed the "ledger tower", turned to powder-magazine, the burst caused the death of hundred people and seriously damaged the castle; the boundaries to the sides of the tower were torn partly and the communication trench destroyed, the same tower remained cut.
Beginning from the XVII sec. the castle had a predominantly military use and started to suffer the first changes to entertain imprisoned of war.
From 1700 to 1970 as criminal and political jail was used then suffering for this deep transformations up to make the unrecognizable inside in comparison to the original construction.
Leaving the castle starts there toward the Bishopric of which the period of construction is not known exactly, certainly its origins are therefore very ancient. And' in fact, opinion of the researchers that was already abode of the Bishop Warmondo in the X sec. or straight antecedent.
The building is a whole buildings of different epochs and forms created him in the time with additions and changes today. They are still however presents characteristic architectural that can be attributed to the Middle Ages, the tower first of all dictates "the Bishop's Tower" that it is risen of some meters over the roof, embattled preserves particular decorations in brickwork.
In the paved plaza next to the Bishopric we find the Cathedral of Ivrea probably erected by Warmondo on a preexisting church of the IV sec..
According to the tradition, in Roman epoch it rose in the same place a temple devoted to Apollo.
The Church with three aisles preserves, despite the many remaking happened in the centuries, numerous parts that go up again to the Cathedral of Warmondo, particularly the semicircular apse and the two tall bell tower to square form typically of Romanesque architecture.
The two towers are very similar among them but not identical, they are divided in panels overlapped with friezes and hanging bows, in the superior part on every side are placed mullion windows with two or three lights.
An illustrious pilgrim
Along the way of the return in Ireland to take the Episcopal service in his Dioceses, he died in Ivrea in the night between 24 and October 25 th 1492 to 42 in the hospice hospital of the "Vigintiuno" site close to the Chapel of S.Anthony on the old Roman road for Aosta (Street S.Giovanni Bosco).
Admirable example of fidelity and love in the Church, of humility and fortitude of Spirit, of evangelical poverty, of operator of justice and peace, of hope in God.
On the occasion of the V° century of the death of the Blessed Taddeo McCarthy 1992, some Irish pilgrims made visit to the urn in the Cathedral of Ivrea.
Under the plan of the Church it is found the crypt that was built in two times. The most ancient of semicircular form under the apse zone has been surmounted from cross vaults supported by columns, while the most recent part of the XII sec. is separated in three aisles with vaults supported on columns whose shaft comes from preexisting materials.
In the crypt an ancient sarcophagus is found in marble of Roman epoch, belonged to the Questor Caio Atecio Valerio (second halves the II Sec. a.C.) very well preserved to have been kept in the crypt for about eight centuries, used as shrine of the mortal remains of St. Besso for will of King Arduino .
In the crypt three graves of Eporediesi Bishops are also found.
From the XII to the XV sec. the Cathedral was embellished with various pictorial works and with sculptures. In the XVI sec. the chapels were erect along the aisles and in 1854 the Cathedral was widened of an arcade and was built the actual neoclassic façade. In the back part of the Cathedral the rests of the Cloister of the Chapter of the Canons are found, coeval to the construction of the two Romanesque bell tower. The Chapter of the Canons included the priests that helped the Bishop in the religious and administrative practices of the Diocese and they join together in the cloister for the important decisions.
Few away from the plaza of the Cathedral the imposing great Seminar rises built between 1715 and 1765; under the parvis on the right of the entry a part of the mosaic of the X° Century has been walled, mosaic that we suppose to originate from the floor of the choir of the primitive Cathedral. The fragments, mt. 3,32 long and mt. 1,34 tall are constituted by a polychrome tesseras that represent the symbols of the arts that were taught in the local Ecclesiastical School separated in: Trivio (grammar, dialectics, rhetoric) and Quadrivio (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy).
In the mosaic we can still see four figures that represent some of the aforesaid arts.
In the Seminar there is the Library Diocesan heir of the ancient Scriptorium of the VII and VIII Century that possesses over twenty thousand volumes among which the famous Sacramentarlo of Warmondo of the year 1002.
We go down the staircase (called holy staircase that from the portico of the good deed Peana brings us in the Street of the Cathedral and from here we go down in Plaza of City and we take Street Arduino passing in front of the Church of Saint Ulderico of XI Century tied up to a legend related to the passage of the Bishop Ulderico of Magonza in the city of Ivrea. Some ancient part is evident only the Romanesque bell tower, while the Church has been incorporated in the façade of recent construction.
We continue for Street Arduino, "Decumanus Maximus" of the Roman city noticing the particular alleys ,that went down verse Dora River , residual of the ancient and more popular part of the old suburb.
Arrived in Gioberti Plaza we turn on the left and, coasting along the great rock on which the ancient Castellazzo was built, we arrive in front of the old Bridge of the Borghetto.
The Bridge already existed in pre-roman epoch and for centuries it has been the only passage toward in western Canavese. Built in stone by the Romans it was reconstructed then in wood in the medieval period and was covered and defended from two towers. During the time it suffered irreparable damages and it was reconstructed more times and used up to the 1600.
It had widened then in the actual version in 1830 for increasing flow of wagons and carriages. The pillars of the Roman plinth, directly supported on the rock, are visible today.
We pass in front of the fountain devoted to Camillo Olivetti, founder of the homonym firm that for years has given job to thousands of people of the Canavese.
Above the fountain we still see the cliff on which the Castellazzo rose, symbol of oppression destroyed for well twice from the popular fury.
In the first halves the eight hundred was results, demolishing part of the cliff, well 650 meters cubes of material to be able to build part of the walk and road along Dora Baltea river that didn't exist before; in the past this zone was delimited from boundaries and defensive bastions.
We now enter Street Cavour and still in Plaza of City, in the Middle Ages this zone was busy from different buildings among which the hospital De Borgo that remained in activity up to halves the 1700. To its place in 1780 the Town Building was built and formed the plaza.
We enter Street Palestro, important part of the "Decumanus Maximus" and we arrive in Ottinetti Plaza, created in 1843 following the demolition of part of the monastery of Saint Chiara with an intervention of restitching among old and new building.
From the Plaza we go down in the Street of the Patriots and we reach the public gardens dominated from the ancient Romanesque bell tower of Saint Stephen, only survivor of an abbatial complex of the XI Century. In the year 1401 the Bishop of Ivrea Henry II° had made to widen the parish of Saint Stephen to welcome the Benedictine order that had spread in west but not yet to Ivrea.
The monastery was efficient up to 1489 in 1554-1558 when the French General Brissac, Governor of Ivrea, made to demolish the church and part of the monastery to magnify the fortifications of the city.
NIn 1757 the Count Perrone purchased what remained of the abbatial complex and demolished it to widen the garden saving only the bell tower.
The material used for the construction of the tower is not constituted of tiles but also of material of recovery coming from the demolition of other buildings almost surely Romans.
We now cross the Rondolino and Fregulia plazas and we reach Porta Vercelli, the beginning of the ancient road that united the two cities.
We cross the actual Course Massimo Di Azeglio up to the Church of St. Lawrence we follow Street Cascinette in the new zone of the city until the intersection with Street Mountain of the Watch, we follow to the left the road and we run along it for 300 meters to another intersection where we will hold the right and then after 50 meters on the left for a road we will cross to come near a lake.
The Church of St. Gaudenzio in Ivrea, small jewel of Baroque Piedmontese architecture built up among 1716 and 1724 for initiative of the provost of the cathedral, Mr. Lawrence Pinchia, thanks also to generous public offers.
The popular fervor that sustained the initiative testified the devotion of the eporediese people for the figure of St. Gaudenzio, saint of the IV century that was Bishop of Novara to the times of the first Christianization of the Piedmont and that the tradition wants native of Ivrea.
Ten years later the sacristy was built above which the choir was set and, in the same years, it began the building of the elegant bell tower.
To explain the fineness of the forms I delay Baroque the juvenile intervention of the architect Bernardo Anthony Vittone is hypothesized. The initial project of the church, nevertheless, comes today attributed o to the sabaud engineer Luigi Andrew Guibert, active in Ivrea among 1714 and the 1719.
The small church rose on a small high ground it posts out of the built-up area of Ivrea.
On such high ground it climbed for many years the procession that took place the day of the Saint.
Today the church is almost smothered from the civil residences that surround it and is rarely opened to the public.
Also the inside is typically Baroque, with elegant perspective games and paintings with effect of trompe l’oeil.
Very suggestive it the deceptive invention realized perforating aloft the wall, above the St. Gaudenzio in glory shovel, of the presbytery leaving that the look of the spectator reaches the vault of the superior choir, where is a representation of the Heaven fresco in with figures of the Holy Trinity.
It deals with a work performed in 1738-39 due to Luca Rossetti from Orta, active painter already in the Church of St. Bernardino located in Orta San Giulio and then, for many years, point of reference of the pictorial production in Canavese; from him the great fresco of the Episcopalian Building in Ivrea with a suggestive and accurate representation of the parishes and the geography of the diocesan territory.
Of the same painter there are also the altarpiece and the valuable frescos set on vaults and on the walls with allegorical figures, episodes of the life of St. Gaudenzio and floral decorations.
In some landscapes that serve as background to the scenes it is recognizable the city of Ivrea with its Castle from the red towers and notable churches.
In a painted scene over a door the hagiographic version of the life of the saint that, being forced to run away from Ivrea under threatens of death, he has found refuge the night before the departure above a rock located really in the place in which today the church rises and, the following morning, he stretched his mantle on Dora river miraculously succeeding to be transported in safe.
In effects the attractive altar in marble - realized in 1764 - is set really in front of the rock (left visible) that the tradition wants has welcomed the imprint of the saint turning it into a more comfortable pallet.
The fifteenth-century church of St. Bernardino in Ivrea, situated in the industrial area of the Olivetti, represents an attraction of notable artistic interest in virtue of the great inside partition with the Histories of the Life and Passion of Christ by Giovanni Martin Spanzotti among 1485 and the 1490.
1. The history of the church
The church, in its first structure, was built among the September of 1455 and the January of 1457 together with the convent destined to the order of Franciscan Observant Smaller Monks. The great popular admiration towards the figure of St. Bernardino (it’s supposed transited to Ivrea in the 1418) convinced the religious authorities to support the project of construction of the convent, that was inaugurated at the presence of the bishop of Ivrea, Giovanni Parella of St. Martin and of the Franciscan Vicar of the province in Milan.
The first church was to quadrangular plant with cross vaults , typical of the Gothic architecture; together with the convent (comprehensive of two cloisters, the cells of the dormitory, the refectory and the laboratories) it constitutes an example of the architectural solutions that were dear to the Smaller Monks.
The church had been thought above all for the monks of the convent, but due to the great influx of believers from the outside that took part to the religious ceremonies, the spaces to them reserved became insufficient. In 1465 the jobs of enlargement took place with the construction of an aisle with access to the public, divided from the primitive church by a partition with three arcades. The enlargement also included the construction of two side chapels (after destroyed) and a raising of the coverage to draw beyond the partition a space connected to the monastery and reserved to the choir.
The year later Amedeo IX of Savoia took the monastery under his protection; protection that continued after his 1472 death due to his wife Jolanda of Valois.
The fortunes of the monastery already went decaying toward the end of the XVI century, also because of the rivalry with the brotherhood of the Reformed Smaller Monks also it Franciscan that took the placer in the management of the convent beginning from 1612, without nevertheless to arrest its decline. In the seven hundred century the church and the convent suffered a further decay because of the following military occupations until to the Napoleonic conquest and the abolition of the ecclesiastical ownerships. The church, desecrated by now, was used for years as agricultural deposit.
Camillo Olivetti purchased the complex (sets in the immediate proximities of his factory of typewriters) in 1910 and started one first recovery turning it into his residence. He also made to remove the loft built behind the wall Spanzottiana.
It was then Adriano Olivetti that realized, among 1955 and 1958, a more important project of retraining of the area, destining it to center of the social services and the recreational facilities for the employees.
The frescos of Spanzotti, restored in the same period, found their correct critical celebration in an essay of Giovanni Testori, that operated in that time to Ivrea near the Cultural Services of the Olivetti.
It is worth of the firm of Ivrea to have guaranteed the following maintenance of the complex, also with some unwise interventions of industrial use of the adjoining area to the church.
2. The frescos
Well little it is known about the most ancient frescos that adorn the presbytery, the most ancient of which probably realized in the same period of the building (1457).
In the two chapels set in correspondence to the side arcs of the partition we find painted respectively a Crucifixion and a Madonna with her Child, Saints realized around 1470 by unknown artists of Lombard origin that linger on Gothic forms (the Madonna with her Child an attribution is advanced to Cristoforo Moretti).
2. 1. The partition wall by Spanzotti
The frescoed partitions that today can be seen still in Piedmont, Lombardy and Canton Ticino it is due to the order of the Observant Smaller Monks: they obey to a well precise iconographic program that had to serve for giving emphasis to the preachings that were held in the church, particularly in the period of the Advent and in the Week Saint.
That by Giovanni Martin Spanzotti in Ivrea is one of the most ancient among those survivors, realized not many years after those that are held first examples of the that kind (today disappeared), or rather that of the church of St. Giacomo Pavia (with frescos of Vincent Foppa, of Bonifacio Bembo and others) and that of the old church of Sant'Angelo to Milan (with frescos attributed to Foppa). The commission given to Spanzotti underlines its stylistic debt toward Foppa that Roberto Longhi had already underlined punctually.
The artistic interest of the church assembles on the great partition by Spanzotti in two intervals of time among 1485 and the 1490 ca. The History of the Life and the Passion of Christ is narrated in winds scenes (each from the dimensions of 1,5 for 1,5 meters), more a great Crucifixion having a quadruple measure in comparison to the others. The scenes that is possible to read in succession are; in the superior register the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magis, the Escape in Egypt, the Dispute among the doctors, the Baptism, the Risurrezione of Lazzaro and the Entrance in Jerusalem; in the middle register the Last Supper, the Lavender of the feet, the Prayer in the garden of the Ulivis, Jesus' Capture, Jesus in front of Husked, Jesus in front of Caifa; in the inferior register we finally find the scenes of the Scourging, the Ecce Homo, the Slope to the Calvary, the Deposition and the Risurrezione. The great and dramatic scene of the Crucifixion hits the visitor's attention and represents the heart of entire cycle.
The expulsion from the Eden", Church of St. Bernardino, Ivrea author Gian Martino Spanzotti
In the underlying pillars we find represented an image of St. Bernardino and a Christ in Pity, while on the sides of the arcs we find a expulsion from the Eden and scenes of the Universal Judgment.
The cycle on the "partition" of the Franciscan church of Ivrea not only reflects the pedagogic demand of the commissioner to prepare for the listening of the sermons of the "biblia pauperorum" able to translate the writings in images, but it expresses above all the peculiar lines of the devotion of the observant monks that it aims to return a genuine human position to the evangelical story. Spanzotti is able to interpret in exemplary way the desire of the commissioner, developing a new poetic to confer to the story the truth and the nobility of the human experience that it is proper of the humble ones.
In his essay on the frescos of St. Bernardino, Giovanni Testori observes:
«It is a new nobility that founds itself in these years in the North of Italy and to which the Spanzotti offers his unmistakable tone: a human, rather than humanistic nobility; the fact brought to its real and daily proportions against the fact dilated by the exaggeration of the ideology; the depth of the particular one, finally, against the wide one of the universal one. But to retrieve for constancy of truth a word that has lasted and hard in the destiny of the men, sharp pain in their meat and in their heart, that great, human and meritorious labors!»
(Giovanni Testori, G. Martino Spanzotti - the frescos of Ivrea, 1958 )
The colors by now faded by the time and by the suffered insults, they don't prevent the spectator to gather the technical quality of the paintings and the great ability of the artist in to gather the different light of the environments and the hours of the day.
"Spanzotti is found free to see rooms of country people as they are already in a light cleaning up with care to open windows, with the family trunk of the garden that is them to course of hand. [..] as much it is the wisdom of the Spanzotti in to always treat the lights in natural way, according to vary of the time and of the mind. From that violet light that seems to go down cold and shivering from the mountains for the first scenes of picked and domestic (Annunciation and Nativity) feeling to make purer, to that warmer than the great open dominated in the foreground by the vivacious donkey (the flight into Egypt, Entered Jerusalem) to that that bathes the Christ in the moment of the tragedy: that cloths soaked with light, in the anguish of the feeling –from the Prayer in the garden to be in front of Husked and to Caifa - a slighting technique solution so covered of meaning, to make great the Spanzotti"
(Aldo Moretto, Iopen Investigation on the frescos of the Canavese, 1973)
Among the manifold artistic qualities that the essay of Testori underlines, how much less, the nighttime scene of the "Capture of Christ", with that to melt inextricable of shades, figures, hands, lances, caresses and faces that anticipates of over one century the Caravaggio. A particular drama inside the scene of the Crucifixion" is the desperate rush of the Maddalena, not forgetful of the lesson learned by the Spanzotti observing the same figure in the frescos performed by Ercole de' Roberti (student of his teacher Francesco of the Cossa) for the cathedral in Bologna and in the Emilian "funerals". Figurative elements of clear northern ancestry explain are explained through the rained influence on Spanzotti by Antoine de Lonhy. In synthesis, through the frescos of the partition, the work of Spanzotti is a point of fertile meeting of the present artistic expressions on the two slopes of the Alps, aspect that characterizes for many verses the peculiarity of the artistic production in Piedmont during XV century.
Cascinette of Ivrea, a town of 1500 inhabitants for a territorial extension of around 2.2 Kmqs is set down at the feet of the Morainic Serra and belongs to the grandiose Morainic Amphitheater of the Canavese, one of the most imposing to the world.
It’s territory is edged partly from hills rich in vegetation and embellished by the suggestive Lake of Country, is a destination of fishermen and families looking for coolness and of calm and recently endowed with an area for tourists adequately equipped.
Even if it doesn't count centuries of glory and a towered castle, Cascinette participated in the alternate fortunes of Ivrea and Chiaverano; in the documents it appears around the 1600.
The origin of the name "cascinette" it is to seek in the term "cassina" or farmhouse, that is the agricultural firm and it draws origin from the ancient farms with roofs in straw, said bent, built by the inhabitants of Chiaverano as base of support for their fields situated in the plain one.
With to spend some time these ancient agricultural shelters were turned into the stable residences of country, the "clean farmhouse of country near Chiaverano", later Cascinette of Chiaverano.
In the intervening period among 1764 and 1770 a chapel devoted to S.Anthony of Padua was built for service of the country in 1834,, rehandled and widened became the actual parish church.
After a long period of contrasts and struggles with the people of Chiaverano, motivated by the desire to become independent, with the Law of June 22 1925 Cascinette got the autonomy from Chiaverano of which it was fraction assuming the actual denomination of Cascinette of Ivrea.
On the coat of arms of Cascinette the bell tower appears without its pleasant Church , situated in the plan to 200 meters distance.
The motive for this atypical position is due to the necessity to build it in more elevated position, on the Stone mountain, because all the inhabitants of the country could read the time (the project of the bell tower, built in 1863, it is work of the architect Filippo Gaya).
Burolo is set to the feet Serra that divides the provincies of Turin and Biella. To find an etymological explanation of its name, some tell that the olive flourished in other times in the near necks and in the rich adjacent pastures a large quantity of butter was formed: (burro-olio) from this Burolo!
And' a small earth still defended once by a soprastante built-up area fortress
In front of it a parish, a comfortable country house of the count Buronzo of Azigliano appears ; the town plaza is intermediary to these two buildings.
Mentre il Dizionario geografico-storico-statistico-commerciale (1834) così riporta:
Burolo ( Buriolum ), com. nel mand. prov. e dioc. d'Ivrea, div. di Torino. Dipende dal senato di Piem., intend. prefett. insin. ipot. e posta d'Ivrea.
The Marquises of Ivrea missed, the Church came in power in that region; which granted like medium feud to the Marquis of Monferrato in 1227.
These particular Lords sold their castle to the Vercellesis in 1193 and then reformed of the contract they didn't want to accept it anymore.
They were summoned by the Vercellesis in front of the pontifical delegate the bishop of Pavia in 1208 and they were persuaded to respect what was been agreed.
But, the year later, from the curia in Milan it was repaired the sentence and besides these gentlemen, for the many services in defense of the Church of Ivrea, got various prerogatives on it.
They held this place with title Lodi-Ceveris of Marentino. Also Micheletti-Bichieris had dominion on it.
It is one of the beautiful subalpine villages that rises to manner of amphitheater.
Its built-up area starts to the extreme stratum of a pleasant hill and prolongs up to the vertex of it, where some vestigies of an ancient castle remain, erected by the vassals to the only purpose to dominate the county.
We believe that the hill was once populated of olives and that the lowland was well cultivated grasslands, to maintain numerous herds whose products were dairy and excellent butter, products that returned to great advantage of the inhabitants.
And' therefore easy to understand as some from butter and oil they derived the etymology of Burolo
A small valley, that forms the border of the territories of Biella and Ivrea, divides the hill from that rich of woods, denominated the Serra.
From this village four streets depart: one, toward rising, conducts to Torrazzo; another, toward midday, conducts to Bollengo; a third one, from west, conducts to Ivrea, two miles far; the fourth one, from north, brings to Chiaverano, that is far a mile and a half .
Two of them lead to BIella: the road from Bollengo to Zubiena is the longest, but easy footstep; the other to Torrazzo is briefer, but uphill and difficult street.
The parish is under the invocation of the saints Peter and Paul: opposite to it a comfortable building that serves to vacation of a noble family.
There are two public oratories, one devoted to the Virgo Mother and the other to S. Rocco.
The products are wheat, rye, big Turkish, hay and grapes in abundance, from which generous wines are a great deal.
The inhabitants, breathing a healthy air, tare for the more very strong, of happy nature and of wakened mind. Agriculture is for them a delectable occupation.
We arrive so to BOLLENGO that develops its built-up area center in the small valley of the stream Riale between the Serra and its smaller buttress "Serretta". In the medieval epoch Bollengo was in the area of disputed territory between Ivrea and Vercelli. In the X sec. the zone included three small built-up area centers of ancient origin perhaps Celtic ; Bollengo, Paerno and Pessano. At the beginning of the XI sec. Ivrea, to contain the expansionistic aims of Vercelli, decided to build a frank suburb or shelter calling the inhabitants of the three centers to live offering them favorable conditions. In 1250 the shelter was ready but, despite the favorable conditions, not all the inhabitants of the Bollengo stuck to the invitation to move, instead Paerno and Pessano accepted to abandon their villages that with the time decayed up to disappear.
Of Paerno an important solitary polling bell tower remains on a beautiful land that opens among the woods of the Serra. The bell tower belonged to the Church of St. Martin that was demolished in the XVIII sec. by the Bishop's order because of the bad conditions; the tower remained with the local name of "Ciucarun".
Of Pessano the Romanesque Church of the Saints Pietro and Paul remains. This sacred place, that was definitely closed to the cult in 1887, has not a very common form in Canavese with the scheme of bell tower in façade in axle with the central aisle of the church. In the bell tower the entry is drawn to the Church constituted by a narrow passage to form of barrel. The building was recently restored.
Following the road that places side by side the Church of the Saints Peter and Paul we can enjoy some panorama on the lowland Canavesana while we are starting toward Palazzo Canavese abandoned on a modest high ground that faces the plain one and not on the slopes of the Serra as the other near Centers. The Suburb has Roman (Ad Palatium) origins and thanks to its intermediary geographical position it seems that it had the important charge of station of mail.
In the medieval period also Plazzo since 1091 depended for a part on the Chapter of the Cathedral of Ivrea. Between the XII and the XIII Century., as the other places of the Serra, also Palazzo was involved in the war between Ivrea and Vercelli and Vercelli, in the attempt to magnify the frank Suburb of Piverone, tried to eliminate the primitive village trying to move all its inhabitants to the new suburb, but it partly succeeded. The historical center of the country preserves the typical atmosphere of the rural villages of this suggestive Canavesana Land.
The road toward PIVERONE climbs from the 248 mt. s.l.m. of Palazzo to the 295 mt of Piverone, abandoned on a highland of the Morainic Serra. The housing installation has prehistoric origins shown by attesting archaeological finds the presence of ovens for the fusion of the metals.
It was therefore then Roman center even if they are not found traces that attest it because there have not been finalized searches.
In XII Century the Commune of Vercelli ,from which Piverone depended, to the purpose to strengthen its own dominoes in the Canavesana region decided to found a frank Suburb and to gather the inhabitants of four near villages: Unzasco, Livione, Piverone and Palazzo.
Despite the opposition of Ivrea the Shelter was built widening and strengthening the primitive installation of Piverone that subsequently it absorbed the populations of Unzasco and Livione, Palazzo saved itself because only a part of the inhabitants moved in the new suburb, for the intervention of Ivrea that succeeded in holding back part of the initial residents.
Subsequently Piverone became with the years a free commune and succeeded in sustaining such for many years.
A lot of artistic and architectural testimonies of the medieval epoch remain: the imposing tower-door, situated in origin to the entry of the suburb has still visible the loopholes of the bridge drawbridge; few distant, other angular towers and lines of the surrounded building. In Region St. Pietro is also visible what left of a Romanesque bell tower which still introduces faded traces of two frescos, a noble coat of arms and a St. Sebastiano, dated 1448.
Going out of the built-up area center and going on pleasant hilly paths toward Viverone we reach the area where the ancient village of Livione rose; here we find the abandoned rests of a place of cult, interesting and suggestive: the "Gesiun" devoted to St. Pietro going up again to the IX Century.
The church of modest dimensions and in primitive Romanesque style, appears like an aisle separated by the presbyteral vain through three small arcs supported by three columns; the small bell tower is located on the central part of the presbytery. It’s possible to see some fragments of fifteenth-century frescos
Always continuing on ancient paths among the vineyards the territory of VIVERONE we reach the Lake of elliptic form with a surface of around 6 square Kilometers and a depth of 75 meters.
On the road that brings to the built-up area center we meet the beautiful complex of the "Cell of St. Mark or St. Michael" absorbed in the vineyards with the beautiful Romanesque bell tower realized in stone and adorned by windows with one and two lights placed side by side by a win firm of recent construction.
Siamo così giunti al termine del percorso Canavesano della Via Francigena, entrando nel territorio della Provincia di BIELLA di cui si attraversano i Comuni di Viverone, Roppolo e Cavaglià per raggiungere poi la Provincia di Vercelli.