Everything about Vercelli totally explained
Vercelli (
Varséj in
Piedmontese) is a
commune and
city of about 50,000 inhabitants in the
Province of Vercelli,
Piedmont, northern
Italy. One of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy, it was founded, according to most historians, around the year 600 BC.
The town is situated in the
Pianura Padana, between
Milan and
Turin.
It is an important centre for the cultivation of
rice, and is surrounded by
paddy fields, which are flooded in summer.
In Vercelli, the world's first University funded by public money was established in 1228.
Today Vercelli has a University of Literature and Philosophy as a part of the
Università del Piemonte Orientale
(or Eastern Piedmont University) and a satellite campus of the
Politecnico di Torino.
History
Vercellae (
Vercelum) was a city of the
Libici or
Lebecili, a
Ligurian tribe; it became an important
municipium, near which
Gaius Marius defeated the
Cimbri and the
Teutones in the
Battle of Vercellae nearby in
101 BCE.
Imperial
magister militum Flavius Stilicho annihilated the Goths there 500 years later. It was half ruined in
St. Jerome's time. After the
Lombard invasion it belonged to the
Duchy of Ivrea. From 885 it was under the jurisdiction of the
prince-bishop, who was a
count of the empire.
It became an independent commune in 1120, and joined the first and second Lombard leagues. Its statutes are among the most interesting of those of the medieval republics. In 1197 they abolished the
servitude of the glebe. In 1228 the
University of Pavia was transferred to Vercelli, where it remained till the fourteenth century, but without gaining much prominence; only a university school of law has been maintained.
During the troubles of the 13th century it fell into the power of the
Della Torre of Milan (1263), of the Marquesses of
Monferrato (1277), who appointed
Matteo I Visconti captain (1290-1299). The Tizzoni (
Ghibellines) and Avogadri (
Guelphs) disputed the city from 1301 to 1334, the latter party being expelled several times, thus enabling the Marquess of Monferrato to take Vercelli (1328), which voluntarily placed itself under the Viscount of Milan in 1334. In 1373 Bishop Giovanni Fieschi expelled the Visconti, but Matteo reconquered the city.
Facino Cane (1402), profiting by the strife between
Giovanni Maria and
Filippo Maria Visconti, took Vercelli, but was driven out by
Theodore II of Montferrat (1404), from whom the city passed to the
dukes of Savoy (1427).
In 1499 and 1553 it was captured by the French, and in 1616 and 1678 by the Spaniards. In 1704 it sustained an energetic siege by the French, who failed to destroy the fortress; after this it shared the fortunes of Savoy. In 1821 Vercelli rose in favour of the Constitution.
Main sights
Vercelli is home to numerous relics of the Roman period, for example an amphitheatre, hippodrome, sarcophagi, many important inscriptions, some of which are Christian.
There are two noteworthy towers in the town: the
Torre dell’Angelo which rears up over the old market square and the
Torre di Città in Via Gioberti.
The Cathedral, formerly adorned with precious pillars and mosaics, was erected and enlarged by
St Eusebius of Vercelli, to whom it was dedicated after his death. It was remodelled in the ninth century, and radically changed in the sixteenth by Count Alfieri. Like the other churches in the city it contains valuable paintings, especially those of
Gaudenzio Ferrari,
Gerolamo Giovenone and
Lanino, who were natives of Vercelli. The cathedral library holds the famous
Vercelli Book—an
Old English manuscript which includes the celebrated alliterative poem
The Dream of the Rood, the 8th century
Laws of the Lombards and other early manuscripts.
The
Basilica di Sant’Andrea was erected by Cardinal
Guala Bicchieri in 1219: together with the old
Cistercian monastery, it's one of the most beautiful and best preserved
Romanesque monuments in Italy.
Among other noteworthy churches is
Santa Maria Maggiore.
There is an Institute of the Beaux-Arts, containing paintings by Vercellese artists.
There are old charitable institutions, like the hospital founded by Cardinal Guala Bicchieri (1224), which has an annual revenue of more than 600,000 lire ($117,000); the hospices for orphan girls (1553) and for boys (1542) and mendicant homes.
The archives of the metropolitan chapter contain valuable manuscripts including an
evangelarium of the fourth century, the "Novels" of
Justinian, the "Leges Langobardorum", the "Capitulare regum Francorum", also hagiographical manuscripts, not all of which have been critically examined, and a very old copy of the "Imitation of Christ", which is relied upon as an argument for attributing the authorship of the work to
John Gersen. The civil archives are not less important, and contain documents dating from 882. The extensive seminary contains a large library.
Museums
The Museo Borgogna has an important collection of paintings, including examples of the work of
Titian and
Jan Brueghel the Elder as well as that of Piedmontese painters of the 15th and 16th centuries.
The Museo Camillo Leone holds a rich collection of objects of archaeological and historic interest and of decorative art.
Natives of Vercelli
Culinary matters
The typical dish is rice with beans, called
panissa. The typical wine is
Gattinara DOCG, a classic red wine of Piedmont made principally from the
nebbiolo grape (known locally as
spanna) from the
comune of
Gattinara, where there's archaeological evidence of vines being grown in Roman times.
Sport
Unione Sportiva Pro Vercelli was one of the most successful
football clubs in Italy in earlier times, winning the national championship seven times between
1908 and
1922. Today it competes in the
Serie C2.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Vercelli'.
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