Bassignana (in Piedmontese dialect ''Bassgnan-na'') is a municipality in the Province of Alessandria, Piedmont, northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. The village is situated near the confluence of the

Po River The Po ( , ; la, Padus or ; Ligurian language (ancient), Ancient Ligurian: or ) is the longest river in Italy. It flows eastward across northern Italy starting from the Cottian Alps. The river's length is either or , if the Maira (river), Mair ...

and the Tanaro river. Main sights include remains of the castle, dating to Lombard times, and a Romanesque pieve (10th century) with 12th century Byzantine frescoes.

History

The first inhabitants of whom there is written news belonged to the Ligurian tribe of the

Marici Marici may refer to: * Marici (Ligures), a Ligurian people of Gallia Transpadana * Marici (Buddhism), Buddhist deity * Marichi, masculine Sanskrit term for one of the Saptarshis * See also * Marich (disambiguation) {{Disambig ...

: they had crossed the Pennine in the postglacial era and had settled south of the Po river, in the area between Stradella and

Casale Monferrato Casale Monferrato () is a town in the Piedmont region of Italy, in the province of Alessandria. It is situated about east of Turin on the right bank of the Po, where the river runs at the foot of the Montferrat hills. Beyond the river lies the v ...

. Such people were closely linked to that of the Levi, who had settled further north: the founding of Ticinum, the modern Pavia, is attributed to the Levi and to the Marici. Some toponomastic traces of that period exist in the area: Bosco Marengo stems from ''Lucus Maricum'' and Pietra Marazzi from ''Petra Maricorum or Mariciorum''. In the 6th century BC the

Po valley The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain ( it, Pianura Padana , or ''Val Padana'') is a major geographical feature of Northern Italy. It extends approximately in an east-west direction, with an area of including its Venetic ex ...

was occupied by Celtic peoples coming from the north and realistically also Bassignana had contacts and compenetrations with these peoples. In 222 BC the Roman commanders Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Gneus Cornelius Scipio conquered the whole area, which conquest was strengthened by the defeat of the Ligures in 166 BC under the consulate of Gaius Sulpicius Gallus. The toponym of the municipality dates back to that era, coming from the Roman family to whom ownership of the territory was attributed, the ''gens Bassinia''. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the barbaric incursions, Bassignana was first under the rule of the

Lombards The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the '' History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 an ...

, then under that of the

Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...

. In the 10th century, the emperor Otto II attributed Bassignana to the jurisdiction of the bishop of Pavia, Pietro, a jurisdiction relating to the Pieve (''plebs'') and to the assets connected thereto.The attribution was granted through an imperial diploma dated 22 November 976. At the beginning of the 13th century the area was placed - still following the Emperor's order - under the jurisdiction of the Margrave Pallavicino, already podestà of

Alessandria Alessandria (; pms, Lissandria ) is a city and ''comune'' in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. The city is sited on the alluvial plain between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, about east of Turin. Alessand ...

. In 1350 it became part of the

Duchy of Milan The Duchy of Milan ( it, Ducato di Milano; lmo, Ducaa de Milan) was a state in northern Italy, created in 1395 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, then the lord of Milan, and a member of the important Visconti family, which had been ruling the city sin ...

. After the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), it was assigned to the

House of Savoy The House of Savoy ( it, Casa Savoia) was a royal dynasty that was established in 1003 in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, the family grew in power from ruling a small Alpine county north-west of Italy to absolute rule of ...

-Piedmont. Many of its inhabitants emigrated to Memphis, in the United States, at the start of the 20th century.

References

{{authority control Cities and towns in Piedmont