Churches full of noble tombs, parade ground, palaces consecrated to authority: how was the architecture
of Alessandria in the Modern era? The historical novel La capitagna e il glifo can solve the puzzle. The talk
“Thursday at Marengo” (Thursday 20 at 17:30 at the International Cultural Hub of Marengo) will host the
authors Simonetta Gorsegno and Gianni Cellè to rediscover the identity of Alexandria in the past centuries.
In 1589 our city faced the tax imposed by the governor Don Rodrigo of Toledo, who was in love with Elvira,
a laundress at the Spanish garrison. The man seduces Elvira, a young orphan with desire for social rise. The
main character, betrayed and rebelled against the oppressor, is locked in the dungeons of the Palace
together with the rebels. Carlito, the Spanish guard, will help Elvira escape through the underground.
Porta Marengo, built in the east of Alessandria, facilitated the flow on the main road to Piacenza. The
steam train to Mandrogne ran along the plain of Marengo. The citadel – built on the eastern side of the
threshold around 1650 at the time of the Spanish domination and then destroyed to erect the parade
ground for the Napoleonic army – stood on the space now delimited by Via Piave, Corso Lamarmora, Via
Tortona, Gamondio. In 1910 military servitude fell and the residential area developed, ennobled by Piazza
Matteotti.
