Castiglione delle Stiviere
Encyclopedia
Castiglione delle Stiviere is a town and comune
Comune
In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

in the province of Mantua
Province of Mantua
The Province of Mantua is a province in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. Its capital is the city of Mantua.-Communes:It includes 70 comuni , ranging in area from Viadana, with 102.19 km², to Mariana Mantovana, with 8.81 km²....

, in Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...

, Italy, 30 km northwest of Mantua
Mantua
Mantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...

 by road.

History

During the War of the Spanish Succession
War of the Spanish Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was fought among several European powers, including a divided Spain, over the possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one Bourbon monarch. As France and Spain were among the most powerful states of Europe, such a unification would have...

, the French under the duc de Vendôme occupied it.

In 1706, in the first Battle of Castiglione
Battle of Castiglione (1706)
The Battle of Castiglione took place on 8 September 1706 in the War of the Spanish Succession. A French army defeated a Hessian army besieging Castiglione delle Stiviere.-The battle:...

 a French army under Jacques Eléonor Rouxel de Grancey
Jacques Eléonor Rouxel de Grancey
Jacques Eléonor Rouxel, comte de Grancey, comte de Médavy was a Marshal of France.He was the grandson of Jacques Rouxel de Grancey , also Marshal of France....

 defeated here a Hessian army led by Frederick I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel.

During the siege of Mantua in 1796, the Austrians under Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser
Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser
Dagobert Sigismund, Count Wurmser was an Austrian field marshal during the French Revolutionary Wars. Although he fought in the Seven Years War, the War of the Bavarian Succession, and mounted several successful campaigns in the Rhineland in the initial years of the French Revolutionary Wars, he...

 were defeated here in the second Battle of Castiglione
Battle of Castiglione
The Battle of Castiglione saw the French Army of Italy under General Napoleon Bonaparte attack an army of Habsburg Austria led by Feldmarschall Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser on 5 August 1796. The outnumbered Austrians were defeated and driven back along a line of hills to the river crossing at...

 by the revolutionary French army under General Augereau, later Marshal of France
Marshal of France
The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...

, who in 1808 was created Duke of Castiglione by Emperor Napoleon I
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

, a hereditary victory title
Victory title
A victory title is an honorific title adopted by a successful military commander to commemorate his defeat of an enemy nation. This practice was first used by Ancient Rome and is still most commonly associated with the Romans, but it has also been adopted as a practice by many modern empires,...

 (so there never was an actual territorial duchy attached to it) extinguished in 1915.

It is the birthplace of St. Aloysius Gonzaga
Aloysius Gonzaga
- Early life :Aloysius Gonzaga was born at his family's castle in Castiglione delle Stiviere, between Brescia and Mantova in northern Italy in what was then part of the Papal States. He was a member of the illustrious House of Gonzaga...

 (Italian: Luigi Gonzaga, 9 March 1568–21 June 1591) who was a Jesuit. Aloysius was buried in the Church of the Annunciation in Rome. His head was later translated to the basilica bearing his name in Castiglione delle Stiviere.

Castiglione received the honorary title of city by presidential decree on 18 October 2001.

Main sights

It has an old castle, much altered and restored, especially by the Gonzaga family
House of Gonzaga
The Gonzaga family ruled Mantua in Northern Italy from 1328 to 1708.-History:In 1433, Gianfrancesco I assumed the title of Marquis of Mantua, and in 1530 Federico II received the title of Duke of Mantua. In 1531, the family acquired the Duchy of Monferrato through marriage...

 of Mantua in the 16th century.

Castiglione is the birth place of the International Red Cross, which was established by Henri Dunant during the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino
Battle of Solferino
The Battle of Solferino, , was fought on June 24, 1859 and resulted in the victory of the allied French Army under Napoleon III and Sardinian Army under Victor Emmanuel II against the Austrian Army under Emperor Franz Joseph I; it was the last major battle in world...

in 1859. There is a museum in the center of the town dedicated to the IRC.

External links







The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK