Former Castle of San Damiano d'Asti

Address Piazza SS. Cosma e Damiano, 14015 San Damiano d'Asti AT, Italia
Tel 0141 975056
Email san.damiano.dasti@cert.ruparpiemonte.it

On the border with the Cuneo area, west of the provincial capital, San Damiano d'Asti is situated in the valley of the Borbone stream and some tributaries, such as the Coasso stream, the Maggiore stream, the Castelnuovo stream, the Blesio stream and the Ripalda stream.

It is reached by driving along the state road to Turin until the stretch where, on the left, the fork appears from which the provincial road to Alba begins.

The history of its founding is documented by medieval chroniclers of the time, from Guglielmo Ventura to Ogerio Alfieri and Astesano: in 1275, during the invasion of Piedmont by Charles of Anjou, the Astesi, having driven out the invaders, besieged and destroyed the castles of Gorzano, Castelnuovo, Lavezzole and Marcellengo, all located in the valley of Borbone.

In a place where there was a church with this title, the Astesi thus founded the stronghold of San Damiano, forcing the men of the destroyed castles to live there.

The founders soon made it an important military stronghold by also building a castle there, of which only the base of a round tower remains today, later adapted as a bell tower for the Parish Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian.

From then on the fate of the new settlement would roughly follow that of the nearby founding town.

For more than two centuries, not without frequent transitions of power, San Damiano would be the domain of the Marquises of Monferrato, who would hold it until 1631, the year of the final handover to the Savoys.

The government of the powerful marquisate began in the mid-14th century, but after a short time it had already passed into the hands of the Visconti, who held it until 1377.

Ten years later it was included among the dotal possessions of Valentina Visconti for her marriage to the Count of Valois: in the dotal deed San Damiano is qualified as "a great villa that has the commune, held by the Marquis of Monferrato." At the end of the 14th century the marquisate had in the princes of Achaia another insidious enemy, who with rapid raids occupied the town for a short time.

In the clashes between Gian Giacomo di Monferrato and Filippo Maria Visconti, the former, having had the worst of it, gave his lands into the custody of Duke Amedeo di Savoia, his relative, until peace was made.

In 1435, three years after this, the duke obtained by way of indemnity several places including Chivasso and Livorno Ferraris; in return he returned as many to the people of Montferrat, including San Damiano.

Between 1537 and 1559 the commune, which in the meantime had deliberated its own statutes, obtaining their approval from the regent Anne d'Alençon (1521), was besieged on several occasions by the French, sometimes resisting the attacks inflicted, other times succumbing.

The bloodiest episode was undoubtedly the assault on the castle, which remained in enemy hands from 1551 to 1559.

With the peace of Cateau-Cambrésis San Damiano returned to the Marquisate of Monferrato.

Hostilities resumed in the early seventeenth century with the wars of succession of Monferrato. Duke Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy, in fact, ordered the important stronghold to be besieged.

But the surrender of the Sandamianesi, although imminent, did not actually occur because of the providential interruption of the war.

In 1617 the Franco-Piedmontese returned to the attack: it was on this occasion that Andrea Prando most distinguished himself, who directed the defense operations with skill and courage to the point of losing his life.

By this time ill-prepared, the besieged agreed to surrender on the condition that there would be no violence and looting, conditions that were not kept, however. In the same year, with the peace of Pavia, the city returned to the Gonzaga.

San Damiano was then occupied by the Savoy in 1628: membership of the illustrious house was sanctioned three years later with the peace of Cherasco.

Thus it was that San Damiano was erected into a fiefdom, passing first to the Counts San Martino of Agliè and, from 1722, to the lawyer Carlo Giuseppe Carlevaris, although the latter, in fact, had been instructed to acquire the fiefdom on behalf of the municipality and not for himself, as he shrewdly did. The 18th century was a period of political stability and consequent tranquility for San Damiano.

In the late eighteenth century the dismantling of the city walls began, an operation that would lead in the following century to the expansion of the town.

Already by the time of Felice Daneo, that is, at the end of the nineteenth century, the two gates called "Sovréra" and "Sottèra" were almost ruined, as was the castle, which we know was demolished in 1617 at the hands of Savoy troops.

At the entrance to the village, under the Palestro rampart (the site of which is still remembered at Piazza Camisola) was a large ditch where an underground passage opened up leading on the opposite side to the castle.

The moat, now deprived of all function, first became the gymnasium for the "game of armband ball," and then, once raised to street level, Piazza Camisola, formerly Piazza Umberto I.


Insights

Direzione Didattica di San Damiano d'Asti (ora I.C. San Damiano)
https://ddsandamianoasti.wordpress.com/




See also...


• Events in San Damiano d'Asti


• San Damiano d'Asti tourist guide


• Municipium, the App of your Municipality