Cigognola

Cigognola is an Italian town of about 1,300 inhabitants in the province of Pavia. This area lies in the green heart of the Oltrepò Pavese, partly perched on a hill, partly extended along the valley “Vallescuropasso”. The Municipality is made up of three hamlets: Cigognola, the capital, Vallescuropasso and Vicomune. In addition to the many charming pathways and routes through nature, there are three of the place’s most characteristic and emblematic symbols: the Viale delle Rimembranze, the Parish Church of San Bernardo Abate and the Castle.
Dating back to an even earlier period, the Castle of Cigognola is mentioned for the first time in documents of the thirteenth century. In the Middle Ages, the Rocca was the subject of dispute between various families, such as the Sannazzaro, the Beccaria and the Visconti, with the aim of transforming itself into a real humanistic court of the Renaissance. In the eighteenth century, the Rocca was passed on to Barbara D’Adda and then to her son, Alberico Barbiano di Belgiojoso. With Napoleon, the property was passed on to the Gazzaniga and finally to the Bricchetto Arnaboldi family. In the nineteenth century, Don Carlo Arnaboldi Gazzaniga, as was the custom at that time, remodeled the structure in a neo-Gothic style by adding Ghibelline battlements, coats of arms and different kinds of decorations. In the 1900s, in the literary salon of Mimmina Bricchetto Arnaboldi, you could come across literary personalities such as Montale, Quasimodo, Croce and Bacchelli.