MENÙ:

Alessandria

  Historical buildings

The Citadel

The Castle of Pavone

The Castle of Montecastello

Valenza

Casale M.to

Ovada

Novi Ligure

Tortona

Acqui Terme

Home page/Alessandria/Historical buildings/The Citadel

THE CITADEL

The splendid fortress of the Citadel, of the XVIII century, testifies the strategic and military vocation of the town of Alessandria, founded at the confluence between the Tanaro and the Bormida like a bastion for the Lombard League in order to control the expansionism of Frederick the Red Beard and of the marquises of Monferrato.

Constructed since 1728 on a stellar plan by Ignazio Bertola, a military architect working for the Savoia dinasty, and built upon the pre-existing urban area of Borgoglio, the Citadel consists of six gigantic bastions surrounded by deep ditches that could be filled up in case of danger. Inside there is an immense square encircled by barracks, quarters, a hospital and palaces like the one of the Governor, later used as a prison in the XIX century.

In 1821, the Citadel was theatre of the constitutionalist rebellions led by Santorre di Santarosa and the three-coloured Italian flag was there lifted for the first time. Its prisons hosted the patriot Andrea Vochieri and in 1867 Giuseppe Garibaldi himself (one of the main actor of the Italian Independence) was imprisoned before the Rattazzi government exhiled him in Caprera (Sardinia). Today the Citadel is a military warehouse and is opened only in particular days of the year so as to offer a visit to an important place of the Italian history and to a complex of buildings of remarkable importance