Santa Vittoria: The Cascina Sant’Ambrogio in a book by Walter Accigliaro

HOLY VITTORIA OF ALBA – The new thematic volume focusing on this historic building in the Lussi area will be presented on Saturday 20 April, at 4pm at Cascina Sant’Ambrogio in Santa Vittoria. The work is curated by the eminent local art historian and scholar Walter Accigliaro and Piero Corino, with the patronage of the municipal administration and the cultural association “Anforianus”, with the collaboration of the Pro loco. The volume bears a significant subtitle: “recent archaeological discoveries, historical and oenological references”.

As the curators themselves explain: «This publication follows the previous book published in 2007, “Cascina e Cappella di Sant’Ambrogio. A complex in Santa Vittoria d’Alba between a cult site and a rural residence””. Dedicated, by will of Piero Corino and his brother Domenico to their father Cavalier Enrico Corino (born in 1924 and passed away in 1998), the book also wants to be a way to celebrate the centenary of the birth of the latter: finding as the “conductor” of initiative by Maurizio Sartore, who is president of the Anforianus association. At the presentation, together with Accigliaro and Corino, some of the co-authors who enriched the book with some ad hoc sections will participate: Luisa Albanese (director of the “Eusebio” Museum in Alba), Simone Giovanni Lerna (archaeological officer of the Superintendence of Fine Arts ), and Giancarlo Montaldo, wine journalist recently appointed as testimonial for the Vinaioli del Castellinaldo and director of the magazine “Barolo & Co”, in a round table which will be followed by a toast. Many themes will be explored in depth: from the results of the new archaeological investigations started in 2010, passing through material culture, the references to the passage through Santa Vittoria of the ancient Roman road Hasta-Pollentia, without obviously forgetting the more recent related events at the Cascina.

Which constituted an authentic crossroads on the “strata” of the Roman era, right there where the Lussi village is what represents the historical continuation of the then inhabited center of Amphorianum. Home to the emergence of “cappuccina” tombs and also of a tabula lusoria, the settlement paid the consequences of the barbarian invasions. «Even the Christian cult seat of probable Ambrosian devotion – specifies Accigliaro – was probably involved». The Farmhouse then became a sort of “object of desire”, considering the donation that Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, made of it to Antonio Porro in 1380: it evolved into a feudal farmhouse and reached the Marquises of Romagnano in 1433 as part of the epochal territorial cession from the hands of the Church of Asti. This sort of control remained in place for three centuries, until the death of the last member of that noble house, in 1730: when the site was assigned to the Marquis Caissotti of Verduno, first president of the Senate of Turin.

Much still happened: from the blessing of the local chapel, the transition to the French government in Napoleonic times, the election as “Private Heritage of His Majesty” Carlo Alberto in 1837, and whose architectural influence is now clearly evident. All of this, until the purchase by the Corino family in 1907. Yes: history has passed, is still passing through, and will travel without stopping, here, at Cascina Sant’Ambrogio.