{"id":3934,"date":"2015-12-25T22:03:16","date_gmt":"2015-12-25T22:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.giuliamarinelli.it\/uncategorized-en\/gualtieri-un-gioiello-lungo-il-po-2\/"},"modified":"2017-09-12T15:27:56","modified_gmt":"2017-09-12T15:27:56","slug":"gualtieri-un-gioiello-lungo-il-po","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.giuliamarinelli.it\/en\/my-blog\/gualtieri-un-gioiello-lungo-il-po\/","title":{"rendered":"Gualtieri, a jewel along the Po River"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Foto<\/a>

Foto Alberto Rossi<\/p><\/div>\n

Let me tell you something about Gualtieri,<\/strong> a small village probably founded by the Lombards<\/strong> that lays along the main embankment of the Po River, in the province of Reggio Emilia.<\/p>\n

As I came here for the first time I was amazed by the grandeur of the square<\/strong> of this small provincial town, where the steps of the few visitors get lost in a dreamy and muffled atmosphere.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Gualtieri was a Free District,<\/strong> then in different times it belonged to the Bishops of Parma,<\/strong> to the Sforza<\/strong> and to the Este.<\/strong> Thanks to the lords of Ferrara Gualtieri became a Feud and was given to the Marquis Bentivoglio.<\/strong> In 1635 this family was forced to return it to the Este in exchange for Scandiano.<\/strong> Gualtieri owes the Bentivoglio its magnificent square,<\/strong> symbol of the generosity and grandeur of Cornelio Bentivoglio,<\/strong> a really controversial figure, an interesting man, who wanted the square to be the “theater” where to magnify<\/strong> himself and his family\u2019s power.<\/p>\n

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Piazza Bentivoglio<\/strong> has a singular, almost elliptical shape. It is almost certainly the result of the collaboration of several architects; the most outstanding of them is probably Giovanbattista Aleotti,<\/strong> a prominent architect and hydraulic engineer from Ferrara<\/strong> active from the late sixteenth to the early seventeenth century. Around the square we admire the Marquis Palace,<\/strong> the Civic Tower,<\/strong> the Church of Santa Maria della Neve and the Community House.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Inside the Palazzo Bentivoglio there are several areas of great interest, such as the Private Chapel,<\/strong> the Hall of Icarus, the Theatre and above all the spectacular Hall of Giants,<\/strong> frescoed in the early seventeenth century with scenes from the Gerusalemme Liberata.<\/strong> Lounges feature, sometimes, temporary exhibitions and art shows.<\/p>\n

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Apart from the palace there are the Collegial Church<\/strong> of Santa Maria della Neve, the Via Vittorio Emanuele,<\/strong> flanked by several interesting buildings and the Piazza Felice Cavallotti, with the Church of Sant\u2019Andrea.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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But Gualtieri is also the homeland of Antonio Ligabue,<\/strong> \u201cal m\u00e0t\u201d, the crazy one, as the locals called him. The painter was born in Switzerland<\/strong> and for sure he had a somehow strange attitude, for the simple inhabitants of Gualtieri; he used to pay back the ones that were gentle to him, or the innkeepers that gave him something for eating with a drawing or a painting. There also were some families that hosted him, but he preferred to sleep in the barn<\/strong> instead of the house. In one of these barns at present there is a little nice museum dedicated to Ligabue. You will discover how human and poetic this extraordinary man<\/strong> was.<\/p>\n