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Comune di Vigevano

Country	Italy
Region	Lombardy
Province	Pavia (PV)
Mayor	Ambrogio Cotta Ramusino (since April 5, 2005)

Elevation	116 m (381 ft)
Area	82 km² (32 sq mi)
Population (as of december 31, 2004)
- Total	59,964
- Density	731/km² (1,893/sq mi)
Time zone	CET, UTC+1
Coordinates	45°19′N, 8°52′E
Gentilic	Vigevanesi
Dialing code	0381
Postal code	27029
Frazioni	Piccolini, Morsella, Fogliano, Sforzesca, Buccella


Location of Vigevano in Italy
Website: www.comune.vigevano.pv.it

Bramante\'s Tower, Castello Sforzesco of Vigevano.

Court of the Castello Sforzesco.

Vigevano is a town and commune in the province of Pavia, Lombardy, northern Italy, which possesses many artistic treasures and runs a huge industrial business. It is at the center of a district called Lomellina, a great rice-growing agricultural centre.

Vigevano\'s famous Piazza Ducale, with the Cathedral façade.

History

The earliest notices of Vigevano date from the 10th century AD, when it was a favoured residence of the Lombard king Arduin, for the sake of the good hunting in the vicinity.

Vigevano was a Ghibelline commune, favoring the Emperor and was accordingly besieged and taken by the Milanese in 1201 and again in 1275. In 1328 it finally surrendered to Azzone Visconti, and thereafter shared the political fortunes of Milan. The Church of S. Pietro Martiere was built, with the adjacent Dominican convent, by Filippo Maria Visconti in 1445. In the last years of Visconti domination it sustained a siege by Francesco Sforza. Once he was settled in power in Lombardy, Sforza procured the erection of Vigevano as the seat of a bishop and provided its revenues.

The famous road-gallery in the Castello Sforzesco.

Main sights

Castello Sforzesco

Vigevano is crowned by the Castello Sforzesco, a stronghold rebuilt 1492-94 for Ludovico Maria Sforza (Ludovico il Moro), the great patron born in the town, who transformed the fortification of Luchino Visconti (who in turn had re-used a Lombard fortress) into a rich noble residence, at the cusp of Gothic and Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci was his guest at Vigevano, and Bramante came to work for him: he finished the famous Tower entitled to him, who had been begun in 1198. The old castle has a unique raised covered road, high enough for horsemen to ride through, that communicates between the new palace and the old fortifications; there is a Falconry, an elegant loggiato supported by 48 columns, and, in the rear area of the mastio, the Ladies\' Loggia made for Duchess Beatrice d\'Este.

Piazza Ducale

Vigevano\'s main attraction is one of the finest piazzas in Italy, the Piazza Ducale, an elongated rectangle that is almost in the ideal proportions 1:2 advocated by the architectural theorist Antonio Filarete, which is also said to have been laid out by Bramante, and was certainly built for Ludovico il Moro, starting in 1492-93 and completed in record time, unusual for early Renaissance town planning. Piazza del Duomo was actually planned to form a noble forecourt to his castle, unified by the arcades that completely surround the square, an amenity of the new North Italian towns built in the 13th century. The town\'s main street enters through a sham arcaded façade that preserves the unity of the space as at the Place des Vosges. Ludovico demolished the former palazzo of the commune of Vigevano to create the space.

Cathedral

In the 17th century one end of the Piazza Ducale was enclosed by the concave Baroque façade of the Cathedral, cleverly adjusted to bring the ancient duomo into a line perpendicular to the axis of the piazza and centered on it.

The Cathedral was begun in 1532 under Duke Francesco II, who commissioned the design to Antonio da Lonate. The edifice was completed in 1606. The interior is on the Latin cross plan, with a nave and two aisles, and houses works by Macrino d\'Alba, Bernardino Ferrari and others, as well as tempera polyptych of the school of Leonardo da Vinci.

Notable Vigevanesi

Ludovico Sforza (1452-1508), known as Ludovico il Moro, "The Moor", Duke of Milan.
Eleonora Duse (1858–1924), italian actress, often known simply as Duse, was born in Vigevano.
Gian Carlo Rota (1932–1999), mathematician and philospher, was born in Vigevano.