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THE CITY OF ALESSANDRIA (Pag. 2)

Traditionally a military stonghold, thanks to its strategic position, Alessandria has maintained a rigorous urban development within the two rivers that encircle it. It does not lack buildings and monuments, though. Some strongly deserve to be visited:

- the Palace of the Town Hall, also said “Red Palace”, with a characteristic clock with three quadrants and the “cock” stolen to the Casalese army in 1225. The municipal theatre, inaugurated in 1775, was included in the palace but it was destroyed by a 1944 bombing.

- The Cuttica Palace, of the XVIII century, with rooms and frescoes in the rococo style.

- The Cathedral.

- The church of Saint Maria di Castello.

- The palace of the Post offices, built in the rationalistic style between 1939 and 1941. The palace is decorated on the façade with a mosaic, 38-meters long, by Gino Severini.

Symbolic center of the town is the “Piazza della Libertà”, where today a monument to the statesman Urbano Rattazzi has been reconstructed, work of Giulio Monteverde. Historical place of the aggregation of the city, it was transformed in military square by Napoleon that in 1803 did not hesitate to pull down the ancient Dome, of which today ancient memories are being recovered.

Then if the tourist wants to dive in the daily life of Alessandria, he has to walk along the Via Dante shopping street up to the Arco di Trionfo in Piazza Matteotti, arc that was erected in 1768, as a memory to the stay of King Vittorio Emanuele III and of Queen Maria Ferdinanda of Spain. And he cannot especially miss to have an “aperitivo” in Piazzetta della Lega (“la Piazzetta”), the traditional meeting place of the inhabitants, with an obelisk dedicated to the fallen of the Indipendence war. Close to the "Piazzetta", in Via Milano, there is the ancient ghetto with the Sinagoga, while in Via San Lorenzo, beyond the Piazza Marconi, which is the Alessandria’s “Piazza delle Erbe”, there is the highly scenographic Piazza Garibaldi, wide and with long arcades.

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