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THE CITY OF CASALE MONFERRATO

True expression of the Savoia urban planning, Casale is probably the city of the province where that air of classic Piedmont can be breathed more, that air that is felt so far away in the eastern and southern border of our territory and that reaches here instead its highest point in the palaces, in the roads, in the squares. Founded on an existing Ligurian agglomerate, said "Vardacate", Casale left at its shoulders the barbaric invasions thanks to the work of evangelization of of Sant'Evasio and to the foundation, by the Saint, of one small church dedicated to San Lorenzo. Sant'Evasio will be beheaded, but its tomb will be consecrated in 1107 with the building of a great Romanesque cathedral. During the communal wars, Casale took the party of the Emperor because of the existing ties between the Emperor Frederick the Red Beard with his uncle Guglielmo Aleramico, Marquis of the Monferrato. Federico II reconstructed it entirely after the complete pillage, in 1215, of the soldiers from Vercelli, Alessandria and Milan.

The city began its new life in 1474, year in which obtained the episcopal seat, in virtue of the renaissance work of Guglielmo VIII, Marquis of Monferrato. It's of this period the construction of the church of San Domenico, built after a vote "ad obtinendam prolem" by the grandson of Guglielmo IX, husband of the French princess Anne d'Alençon. A vote that did not come true, since, extinguished after Guglielmo the Paleologi dynasty, the throne passed through marriages to the Gonzagas of Mantua. Under these, and more precisely under Vincenzo I, the citadel was constructed in 1590 in a position that allowed to resist to the besieges of the Spanish, imperial and Savoia armies. Only in 1695, and more for political causes that for military ones, the mines blew it up. In 1713, with the peace of Utrecht, the Monferrato passed to the Savoia, losing its role of capital and being occupied in 1745 by the Spanish who damaged its churches and its convents.

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