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STRADELLA

Coming from the plain, Stradella meets us nestled on a large terrace hill with its fortress, its churches, seventeenth century palaces, the fourteenth-century tower with a bell tower, the remains of the walls, the fields and vineyards reminiscent of a busy life and the ancient rural traditions.

Its history and the beauty of the landscape, tantalizing cuisine and liveliness in the economic, social and cultural make Stradella the perfect destination for a relaxing weekend. Stradella, 'city of bread', 'wine town', ‘ city of accordion ', opens to visitor the doors of this scenario that smacks of fragrances, stories and suggestions, and where the image of a dynamic present does not give up in combining with the memory of its past and with the ambitions of an exciting future.

His fame rests on four strong pillars: the geographic location, the wine, the figure of Agostino Depretis and prestigious accordion.

The good location has allowed the village to grow quickly and enjoy the privilege, since the Middle Ages, to be able to hold the market every Tuesday.

Stradella, from Latin stricta via, it probably has Roman origins and its old center is located on the Via Postumia. Before 1000, we found the name of Montalino fortress that, even today, used as private residence, overlooks the town. In a document of Frederick Barbarossa of the twelfth century, which makes mention of small towns, is, in fact, cited Montalino but not Stradella. The importance of this first settlement is testified by the presence, from the end of 1100, of the beautiful Basilica of San Marcello in Montalino, important monument of Romanesque style. Both Montalino and Stradella were donated to the temporal power of the Bishop of Pavia who left the feudal lord for eight centuries.

Scene of clashes between citizens of Piacenza and Pavia, towards the end of 1200 the village was looted and burned, so that, in 1300, the Bishop Guido of Langosco built as defense long brick walls, within which, in 1390, Bishop Guglielmo Centueri and Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Lord of the Duchy of Milan, began building the inferior fortress. Montalino as places inhabited, decays gradually, while the town developed around the fortress lower, retaining strategic importance the Fortress of Montalino, or fortress of the Bishop, on the high hill overlooking the town. Date back to 1419 the municipal statutes granted by Bishop Grassi.

After the Visconti and Sforza, the people of Stradella followed the fate of Lombardy, suffering the domination of French, Spanish and Austrian, before joining, after 1748, the Kingdom of Savoy. The lordship of the bishop, Count of Stradella, ceased in 1797 with the abolition of feudalism. In the early nineteenth century, the village, with all the Oltrepò, returned to the house of Savoy, after the final defeat of Napoleon. In the nineteenth century Stradella, thanks to the intense commercial development and production, became the second largest municipality by population of the Oltrepò, earning the title of city in 1865.

The inferior fortress, purchased by the City in 1829, was demolished in 1845 to open the square to the market (now Piazza Vittorio Veneto), and with it the trade of agricultural products, particularly wine, which was of excellent quality, and fabrics that were produced and dyed in the village. The demolition of the fortress spared the current symbol of Stradella, the Civic Tower, thanks to fortuitous conjuncture determined by the collapse, a few years earlier, of the bell tower and to the use of the tower as the basis of a new building.

Remain today as a further testimony of past ages, in addition to the Civic Tower and the Basilica of San Marcello, the fountain of "Qatar canon" and Isimbardi Palace, Town Hall, in the central Via Marconi, the Cathedral, dedicated to Saints Nabor and Felix , the Social Theatre, built in 1843 by architect Chiappa, Guarini Palace, Longhi Palace, House Locatelli, the Oratory of Mercy, the monument to Agostino Depretis.

During the nineteenth century Stradella underwent big urban transformation, with the demolition of its two doors, the route of the Strada Nuova, the construction of the Theatre and, shortly after, the Hospital. The construction of the first railway line Tortona-Stradella in 1854 was a decisive factor for progress, as was the presence of Agostino Depretis, that elected Stradella as his constituency. Born in 1813 and died in Stradella in 1887, Depretis, in relations with Mazzini and Garibaldi, the main exponent of the "old Left", was nine times the Prime Minister (1876-1887) as well as holding other prestigious political office.

Stradella, which today has 11,500 inhabitants, 250 crafts and 270 shops in fixed place, it’s not a noble city. It’s, therefore, a city daughter of the Middle Ages, which was made with the effort of the men, for ages bowed to cultivate the land and, then, to trade and to build the village. With the will and diligence of its citizens, with some illustrious man and with some deserving families has become, since the unification of Italy, a city, a small dynamic world, opened and alive in larger communities of the Oltrepò.

THE CITY OF ACCORDION

Stradella is, above all, the home of the accordion. To quote the words of Paolo Conte "is the city where all the harmonics of this plain were born and someone plays them well."

Halfway between culture, tradition and economy, the image of Stradella 'city of the accordion' owes its fame to the name of the inventor of the modern accordion, Mariano Dallapé. The success of his first prototype led Dallapè to open a shop for the production of accordions. His example was followed in subsequent years by various other artisans who transformed as their shops into real factories, such as those of Ercole Maga, Enrico Massoni, Paolo Rogledi and Carlo Pasquin. In the period of maximum development, between the two World Wars, the establishment of Dallapè had about 300 workers, under the hundred those of other urban factories. In those years, about 10,000 people living in Stradella, 1,200 were employed in the production of accordions.

After the second World War the changing musical tastes and different market conditions led to a progressive decrease in the production of accordions.

Stradella and accordion are been, however, since 1876, and for nearly a century, one thing. The accordion has made known wherever the name of Stradella; it was for decades the economy and culture; was fun, leisure; represented the most authentic expression of the work, creativity, intelligence and manufacturing vocation of an entire community. Even today, the accordion is a symbol linked to the territory and to the city by a strong correlation identity, crediting one of his best-known images and consolidated.

Popular tool par excellence, the accordion immediately brings to mind the popular dance, joy, a riot of voices, sounds, colors. It tells about the human ingenuity, intelligence and human hands. It speaks of entrepreneurs and genius 'artists', but also of workers and forms of self-government of the production. It tells of a culture - not just music - that is between the sea and the Po Valley, passing through the Apennines, marked by centuries of exchange of knowledge, information, people, things. Where accordion music is like a road, plotted over time.

And if the music has not a country, it has a tradition. As the accordion of Stradella, with its museum, dedicated to Mariano Dallapé and inaugurated in the presence of the musician Paolo Conte on May 22, 1999 in the Multipurpose Cultural Centre in Via Montebello. A beautiful reality, recognized by the Lombardy Region, inserted fully into the Museum and Librarian System of Oltrepò, increasingly appreciated by fans and visitors.

MUNICIPAL MUSEUM OF ACCORDION "MARIANO DALLAPE’"

The Accordion Museum "Mariano Dallapè" is the place of exposure, but, above all, a testimony of an art and a production that led, in the world, the name of Stradella. The Museum, through acquisitions and donations, has the task of valorizing the economic, cultural, artistic, historical and social, that the production of handmade accordion has had for the city and the surrounding area.

The museum is divided into two sections, the documentary and photographic section, and the exhibition section; rich in a wide exposure of various types of accordions, of exhibition panels and old work tools. The two sections are completed by the amazing reconstruction of an old workshop. The laboratory, reconstructed in detail, welcomes visitors, and returns, with original equipment of the time and a workbench of the last century, the atmosphere of the ancient shops.

The first Dallapè accordion, 1876, is visible in the documentary and photography section, with various awards for which it was honored and evocative photographic images.

The steady increase of visitors, the interest in the accordion testified on contacts made with Italy and Europe, the strong identification of the city and the region with the instrument, stimulate to take every opportunity to recover the memory and the cultural value of a tradition and a production segment that have really made the story of dozens of workshops of Stradella, making it know the name in the world.

MUNICIPAL NATURAL MUSEUM "FERRUCCIO LOMBARDI"

Natural Museum "Ferruccio Lombardi" is born as "Po Museum", in 1979, on the initiative of the City and a group of fans of natural sciences, including Lombardi himself. The first name of the Museum is due to the fact that the great River Po had provided many of its archaeological and fossil materials.

The Museum has gradually expanded its horizons to represent and to witness the natural environment of the entire Oltrepò Pavese exposing the various artifacts, found all over the territory, in its sections on botany, ecology, environment, and above all, geology and paleontology.

The Natural Museum "Ferruccio Lombardi" is also located inside a multipurpose cultural center, along with the Museum of the Accordion "Mariano Dallapè".

AROUND

Basilica of San Marcello Montalino of Stradella

The Basilica of San Marcello in Montalino is located in Via Montalino, intersection with Viale della Resistenza.

The Basilica of the twelfth century in Lombard Romanesque style, made of terracotta and sandstone. The interior is decorated with fourteenth-century frescoes.

Legend has it that Frederick Barbarossa has buried a valuable spoils of war in this church.

MUSEUMS

INFOPOINT

CONTACTS

Piazzale Matteotti, 2

c / o Railway Station

Stradella (PV)

tel. + 39 345 888 60 33

E-mail: info@infopointstradella.it

skype: infopointstradella

Website: www.infopointstradella.it

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