Savigliano (Savian or Savijan in Piedmontese; Savilianum in Latin) is an Italian town of 21665 inhabitants in the province of Cuneo in Piedmont. Savigliano is located 50 km south of Turin and 35 km north of Cuneo. The built-up area is between the Maira streams to the west and Mellea to the east.
The artistic testimonies of its historic center and
its territory are the consequence of a past rich in history: at
first inhabited by Celtic-Ligurian populations, it was then subdued
by the ancient Romans, whose domination left, in addition to
archaeological finds and epigraphs, traces in the toponym
"Salvianum" from which the name Savigliano is derived.
Mentioned as "villa Saviliani" in an imperial placet of 981, it was
later a free municipality; in the civic coat of arms he adopted the
red cross on a silver field and the motto "Fidelis Deo et
hominibus".
Due to its geographical position it was
particularly exposed to disputes with the Marquisate of Saluzzo.
It followed, from 1349, the ups and downs of the House of Savoy,
with long periods of French domination.
An important military
stronghold, it experienced, at the end of the 16th century and
during the following century, a period of true territorial
supremacy, which corresponded to the flowering of the arts,
documented, in particular, by the painting of the Saviglianese
school, which imposed itself throughout the province.
The
local nobility, having risen to authoritative functions at court,
restored palaces in the city and villas in the countryside, in late
mannerist or baroque forms, while convents and monasteries competed
to modernize churches and clauses.
In the 16th and 17th
centuries it was the provincial capital.
With the demolition
of the fortified walls - which took place at the beginning of the
eighteenth century - Savigliano lost its function as a military
stronghold and also the position of prestige it had occupied among
the Piedmontese centers.
With the French occupation, which
began in 1798, it was part of the Department of the Stura and was
the seat of a sub-prefecture, a rank it maintained until 1814.
In the mid-nineteenth century, under the dominion of the
Trossarellos (also called Trossarelli, on some occasions), the city
found its own role as the seat of important textile and mechanical
factories, to which the arrival of the railway (1853) offered new
possibilities for traffic and connections.
After the Second
World War, the administration of the city was of the Christian
Democrats, until the disappearance of this party.
St. John the
Baptist (parish)
Santa Maria della Pieve (parish church)
Church of Sant'Andrea (parish), preserves the ancona of 1727 with
the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian by Giovan Francesco Gaggini da
Bissone; in the chapel of the Compagnia di San Giuseppe or degli
Agonizzanti, the Transit of San Giuseppe, by Giovanni Antonio Mari
Church of San Pietro (parish)
Church of San Salvatore (parish)
San Filippo
Sanctuary of the Apparition, preserves the altarpiece
depicting San Grato, a work of 1662 by Giovanni Battista Carlone
Medieval church of San Giuliano
Sanctuary of Health
Sanctuary
of the Assumption (Savigliano), preserves eight oils on canvas by
Giovan Francesco Gaggini
Church of the Madonnina della neve
Church of Santa Chiara: the frescoes on the vault are by Giovan
Francesco Gaggini
Church of the Madonna della Consolata, "the
first church, outside Turin, dedicated to the Madonna della
Consolata"
Church of the Archconfraternity of the Risen Christ or
of the Pietà (1708-1722), in Piedmontese Baroque style, completely
frescoed with wooden statues of 1700, including the Risen Christ by
Carlo Giuseppe Plura.
With a precedent,
probably of the thirteenth century, the present tower, made of
bricks, dates back to after 1303. In 1447 it regained ownership of
the city, which added the top.
Palaces
Among the "Open
Castles" of Lower Piedmont:
Muratori-Cravetta Palace
Palazzo
Taffini d'Acceglio, seat of the Savigliano savings bank
Miretti
Palace
Palazzo del Maresco
Theater
The Milanollo Civic
Theater, inaugurated in 1836 with Gaetano Donizetti's exile of Rome,
is the main one in the city.
The area on which the Milanollo
Theater stands was the seat of the ancient hospital or lazaretto,
from 1579 to 1709. Following the move of the hospital to the new
location, the space left free was occupied by a precarious theater
hall in masonry and wood then redesigned in 1745.
In 1834 a
society of citizens commissioned Maurizio Eula (1806-1883) to draw
up a project for the construction of a new theater, whose opening
was authorized in July of the same year by King Carlo Alberto.
The Eula project was carried out in the years 1834-1836 by the
Lugano entrepreneur Poncini. The architectural structure of the
theater is linked to the compositional canons of neoclassicism. The
façade is sober: it is composed of a forepart, 2 side wings and
ended by a cornice with an overhanging attic. In the niches, on the
sides, there are statues of comedy and tragedy, while the genius of
glory, which crowns music and poetry, dominates the front. Inside,
the curtain opens on 2 tiers of boxes, beyond the gallery and
gallery. The hall of the foyer is particularly spectacular, with the
loggia of the musicians.
The paintings involved, among others, famous artists, active in
the orbit of the great Pelagio Palagi, such as Pietro Ayres and
Angelo Moia. The first created both the rose window and the curtain,
representing Apollo and the 9 inspiring muses on Mount Parnassus
(1835). The ornaments are elaborated, silvered and painted in mecca.
It has been owned by the municipality since 1864 and is
dedicated to the Saviglianese violinists Teresa and Maria Milanollo.
In the following decades the theater was the subject of
recurrent renovations directed by the municipal engineers Clodoveo
Cordoni and Guido Jaffe.
In the second half of the twentieth
century the building was declared uninhabitable and closed twice,
from 1952 to 1972 and from 1884 to 1989.
Recently, new
restoration works have been completed on the façade, the foyer and
the performance hall, and the theater, once again restored to its
original beauty, reopened its doors on November 28, 2011.
Other
Piazza Santorre di Santarosa: the square and related
buildings date back to the Middle Ages and is the oldest and most
historic in the city, with the presence of covered arcades on four
sides and many shops
Savigliano is located in
the sub-continental temperate climate area, with average
temperatures in the coldest month of -2 ° minimum and 5 ° maximum;
in the hottest month of minimum 17 ° and maximum 27 °.
Precipitation is distributed throughout the year, with peaks in
spring and autumn. The average rainfall over the last 30 years was
948 mm.
Summer is characterized by alternating periods of
sultry heat and refreshing storms.
Winters can be lacking in
precipitation, if the currents are arranged in such a way as to
place the NW under the alpine rain shadow.
In the past, fog
and snow were much more frequent and persistent.