Cherasco in history is also known for the Armistice of 1796, signed between Napoleon Bonaparte and Vittorio Amedeo III of Savoy, following the Battle of Mondovì, which put an end to the first phase of the Italian Campaign and sanctioned the French occupation of the territory south-western Piedmont.
What happened can be read in many books written by the historian from Cherasco Bruno Taricco: “The arrival, around lunchtime on April 25, of Massena’s French column, who came to make sure that the stronghold had been abandoned by the Austrian and Piedmontese garrison, then that of Bonaparte in the middle of the afternoon, under pouring rain. The general had taken up residence in Palazzo Salmatoris, probably on the basis of an evaluation that was not only aesthetic, but also military and historical convenience: the building was large, it stood in a very spacious part of the main district, where the troops could be manoeuvred, in a position from which it was also possible to control the city centre and it had always been at the centre of major local historical events. In a room of that building, in the early hours of April 28, the armistice between the Piedmontese and the French was signed”.
Even the beautiful avenue of centuries-old plane trees in Cherasco, which is located near the castle, was named after the famous General, also called “Viale Napoleonico”: legend has it that the French commander rested in the shade of a large plane tree near the Visconti castle and so wanted an entire avenue to be built there.
These and other stories related to Bonaparte will be told on Sunday, July 14, during the walking tour entitled “A day with Napoleon”. Participants will turn back the clocks 200 years, for a tour of the places in Cherasco where the Corsican general walked during the First Italian Campaign in 1796. A journey that will touch the famous tree-lined avenue – which connects the Sforza Castle with the refined street geometries of the center – and the works of the artist Jean Gaudaire Thor, exhibited at Palazzo Salmatoris as part of the exhibition “Napoleon. La campagne du monde … a Cherasco”.
To participate in the tour, booking is mandatory, to be made by contacting 0172-42.70.50 (by 12 June): five euros for the membership fee (to be paid before departure), meeting at 5pm at the Cherasco tourist office (Via Vittorio Emanuele 79).
