Azeglio origins
The first authentic document about Azeglio is of the 999A.D. It's a written document made by the emperor Ottone III. He gave to the Vercelli bishop rights on many feuds, one of these is Azeglio. But some historian said that the first Azeglio inhabitants belonged to the Salassi Canavesani people. In fact here were founded some archaeological objects as a bronze dagger, that today is conserved at the Turin civil museum.

The Romans in Azeglio and the origin of its name
When the Romans conquered Ivrea it's pretty probable that Azeglio was occupied too. Massimo D'Azeglio (who was a famous Italian political man and intellectual of the XIX century) said that here could be a penal colony, called Asylum.

He considered this as a possible etymology for Azeglio (Asylum -> Azeglio). At the epoch the colony would be safe because is quite probable that at that time the Azeglio territory was rich of water and quite marshy. This is confirmed by studies that say that the Viverone lake ( a lake near Azeglio) dimensions were bigger than today. This could cause an other etymology from the Celtic word Ac-Selo that means over the water.

Francigena road
It?s believed that Azeglio was a post station on the roman road Ivrea-Vercelli. This road that in the Medieval period took the name of via Francigena Romea. During that time it started from Canterbury to get in Rome.

The Medieval period
During the Middle Age Azeglio was often contested between squirrels on the side of Vercelli bishop and other squirrels on the side of Ivrea bishop (because it's between Vercelli and Ivrea). So while the religious control of Ivrea bishop was never interrupted from 1231 to XIV century the Vercelli bishop held some political influence on Azeglio.

Azeglio conquered by Savoy's
On the 18th May 1361 Savoy's defeated Masino earl and so obtained Azeglio. But they couldn't exert their rights till to 1435. During that interval Azeglio and the nearer towns were occupied by the leader of mercenaries Facino Cane that gave them to Savoy's only after the payment of an amount of money.

After this date our town followed the vicissitudes of the Piedmont. It had great damages when the French tried to occupy the Piedmont in 1551 an in 1704. The fires light by the French soldiers caused the loss of most of the communal documents.

Massimo D'Azeglio
Massimo D'Azeglio was a great Italian political and intellectual man. He was the first minister of Italian reign for some years. He gave important contributes to Italian Risorgimento and to the unification of Italy. He was a writer too in his memoirs he wrote:

"Tante belle memorie mi legano agli Azegliesi ed essi dal canto loro mi vogliono tanto bene che non possono aver per male s'io mi dico dei loro".

"I have so many wonderful memories about the Azeglio citizens and them love me so much that they couldn?t offend if I say myself as one of them."

His family was from Azeglio (they were the earls of Azeglio since Middle Age) but he wasn?t born here. He spent in Azeglio some time. He always conserved of the town good memoirs.
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Last update: Tuesday, September 24, 2002 Best viewed: 800x600