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Saluzzo is a town and former principality in Cuneo province, Piedmont region.
The city of Saluzzo is built on a hill overlooking a vast, well-cultivated plain. Iron, lead, silver, marble, slate, etc. are found in the surrounding mountains. It has a population of approximately 16,000.
Saluzzo was the birthplace of Silvio Pellico, typographer Giambattista Bodoni, Carlo Denina.
History
Saluzzo was a civitas (tribal city state) of the Vagienni, or mountain Ligures, and later of the Salluvii. This district was brought under Roman control by the Consul Marcus Fulvius.
In the Carlovingian age it became the residence of a count; later, having passed to the marquesses of Susa, Manfredo, son of Marquess Bonifacio del Vasto, on the division of that principality became Marquess of Saluzzo; this family held the marquisate of Saluzzo from 1142 to 1548. The marquisate embraced the territory lying between the Alps, the Po, and the Stura, and was extended on several occasions. In the Middle Ages it had a chequered existence, often being in conflict with powerful neighbours, chiefly the Counts (later Dukes) of Savoy. After Manfredo II's death, his widow had to accept a series of tributes, which were to be later the base of Savoy's claims over the increasingly feebler marquises' territories.
Tommaso III, a vassal of France, wrote the romance Le chevalier errant ('the knight-errant').
Ludovico I (1416-75) was a wise and virtuous prince, who started the Golden Age of the city and imposed himself as a mediator between the neighbouring powers. Ludovico II constructed a tunnel, no longer in use, through the Monviso, a remarkable work for the time. With the help of the French he resisted a vigorous siege by the Duke of Savoy in 1486, but in 1487 yielded and retired to France where he wrote L'art de la chevalerie sous Vegèce ("The art of chivalry under Vegetius", 1488), a treatise on good government, and other works on military affairs. He was a patron of clerics and authors. In 1490 Ludovico regained power, but after his deaths his sons struggled longly for the rule and impoverished the state.
After long struggles for independence, the marquisate was occupied (1548) by the French, as a fief of the Crown of France - with the name of Saluces - and remained part of that kingdom until it was ceded to Savoy in 1601. In 1588 Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy took possession of the city. Thenceforward Saluzzo shared the destinies of Piedmont, with which it formed "one of the keys of the house" of Italy.
Ecclesiastical history
The diocese in the Province of Cuneo, Piedmont, Upper Italy was formerly part of the diocese of Turin. Pope Julius II in 1511 made it an exempt diocese, immediately dependent on the Holy See. The diocese has, since 1805, been suffragan of Turin.
In the early 20th century it had 91 parishes with 170,000 inhabitants; 300 secular and 30 regular priests; 31 religious houses; 4 institutes for boys and 3 for girls; and a Catholic newspaper.
The first bishop was Gianantonio della Rovere, who after eight months resigned in favour of his brother Sisto della Rovere, later a cardinal.
Other bishops were: Filippo Archinti (1546), a celebrated jurisconsult; the Benedictine Antonio Picoth (1583) a learned and pious man, founder of the seminary; he was succeeded by St. Giovenale Ancina (1597-1604), a physician and former distinguished professor of the university of Turin and Superior at Naples of the Oratory of St. Philip, the apostle of Corsica; Francesceo Agostino della Chiesa (1642); Carlo Giuseppe Morozzo (1698), who had built the high altar of the cathedral.
Main sights
- The Cathedral (1491-1501), in Lombard-Gothic style. The façade is decorated with rose-windows, frescoes (almost totally waned) and statues. The interior contains a magnificent Baroque high altar, plus a 16th century terracotta group portraying the Deposition, ad Adoration of the Shepherds by Sebastiano Ricci.
- The church of St. Bernard, formerly belonging to the Conventuals, has interesting tombs of the counts della Torre.
- San Giovanni, begun in 1330 in Gothic style and completed in 1504 with Bramantesque influences. It has a noteworthy Gothic façade. The apse, from 1504, houses a Funerary Chapel of Ludovico II, work by antoine Le Moiturier (1425-74) covered with green stone and characterized by an elegant play of archs and sculptures. The sepulchre of Ludovico II is a Renaissance-style work by Benedetto Briosco. Annexed are the Gothic cloister and the Capitular Hall with the Mausoleum of Galeazzo Cavassa, a Renaissance work by Matteo Sanmicheli.
- The Cavassa House, rebuilt with a typical Renaissance interior.
- The church of San Domenico contains several artistic tombs, especially that of the Marquess Lodovico II and his spouse (1504), and the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre.
- The churches of St. Augustine and St. Bernardino are also worthy of note.
- The present Town hall is the former Jesuit College, while the older one (1462), with a bold tower, is utilized by the Court of Assizes. The 16th century Villa Belvedere has elegant rooms with late-Renaissance decorations.
See also
Sources
- Specifically the article on Saluzzo, signed by U. Benigni, who cites
- CAPPELLETTI, Le Chiese d'Italia, XIV;
- CARUTTI, Il Marchesata di Saluzzo;
- GABOTTO, I, marchesi di Saluzzo (Saluzzo, 1901).
- L'Italia da scoprire, Guide di Bell'Italia, ed. Giorgio Mondadori, 2006
External links
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"Saluzzo"