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Montferrat (in Piemontčis
Piedmontese language

Piedmontese is a Romance language spoken by over 2 million people in Piedmont , northwest Italy. It is geographically and linguistically included in the Northern Italian group ....
, Monfrą; in Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
, Monferrato) is part of the region of Piedmont
Piedmont

Piedmont is one of the 20 Regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,399 km? and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital is Turin. The main local dialect is Piedmontese....
 in Northern Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
. It comprises roughly (and its extent has varied over time) the modern provinces of Alessandria
Province of Alessandria

The Province of Alessandria is an Italy Provinces of Italy, with a population of some 430,000, which forms the southeastern part of the region of Piedmont....
 and Asti
Province of Asti

The Province of Asti is a Provinces of Italy in the Piedmont region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Asti. To the north west it borders on the province of Turin; to the south west it borders on the province of Cuneo....
. Montferrat is one of the most important wine districts of Italy.






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Monferrato 1
Montferrat (in Piemontčis
Piedmontese language

Piedmontese is a Romance language spoken by over 2 million people in Piedmont , northwest Italy. It is geographically and linguistically included in the Northern Italian group ....
, Monfrą; in Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
, Monferrato) is part of the region of Piedmont
Piedmont

Piedmont is one of the 20 Regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,399 km? and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital is Turin. The main local dialect is Piedmontese....
 in Northern Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
. It comprises roughly (and its extent has varied over time) the modern provinces of Alessandria
Province of Alessandria

The Province of Alessandria is an Italy Provinces of Italy, with a population of some 430,000, which forms the southeastern part of the region of Piedmont....
 and Asti
Province of Asti

The Province of Asti is a Provinces of Italy in the Piedmont region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Asti. To the north west it borders on the province of Turin; to the south west it borders on the province of Cuneo....
. Montferrat is one of the most important wine districts of Italy. It also has a strong literary tradition, including the 18th century Asti-born poet and dramatist Vittorio Alfieri
Vittorio Alfieri

Count Vittorio Alfieri , was an Italy dramatist, considered the "founder of Italian tragedy."...
 and the Alessandrian Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco is an Italy medievalist, Semiotics, philosopher, Literary criticism and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory....
.

The territory is cut in two by the river Tanaro
Tanaro River

The Tanaro , known as Tanarus in ancient times, is a 276 Kilometre-long river in north-western Italy. It rises in the Ligurian Alps, close to the border with France and is the most significant right-side tributary to the Po River in terms of length, size of drainage basin and Discharge ....
. The northern part (the Basso Monferrato), which lies between that river and the Po
Po River

The Po is a river that flows 652 km eastward across northern Italy, from Monviso to the Adriatic Sea near Venice. It has a drainage area of 71,000 km? and is the longest river in Italy....
, is an area of rolling hills and plains. The southern part (the Alto Monferrato) rises from the banks of the Tanaro into the mountains of the Apennines
Apennine mountains

The Apennines or Apennine Mountains is a mountain range stretching 1000 km from the north to the south of Italy along its east coast, traversing the entire peninsula, and forming the backbone of the country....
 and the water divide between Piedmont and Liguria
Liguria

Liguria is a coastal Regions of Italy of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. Its capital is Genoa. It is a popular region with tourists for its beautiful beaches, picturesque little towns, and food....
.

History

Originally a county, it was elevated to a margravate of the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire was a union of territories in Central Europe during the Middle Ages and the Early modern Europe under a Holy Roman Emperor....
 under Count Aleramo
Aleramo of Montferrat

Aleram was the marquess of Montferrat and Liguria in Northern Italy until his death. He was son of William I of Montferrat.Originally a subject of the King of Italy, he had also allied himself to the royal family by marrying Gerberga, daughter of Berengar of Ivrea....
 in 961, following the transition of power in Northern Italy from Berengar of Ivrea to Otto I of Germany
Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor

Otto I the Great , son of Henry I the Fowler and Matilda of Ringelheim, was Duchy of Saxony, King of Germany, King of Italy, and "the first of the Germans to be called the emperor of Italy" according to Arnulf of Milan....
. Its marchesi (marquesses) and their family members were related to the Kings of France
List of French monarchs

The monarchs of France ruled, first as kings and later as emperors , from the Middle Ages to 1870. There is some disagreement as to when France came into existence....
 and the Holy Roman Emperors. Members of the family participated frequently in the Crusades
Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religious war waged by much of Christian Europe against external and internal opponents. Crusades were fought mainly against Muslims, though campaigns were also directed against Paganism Slavic peoples, Jews, Eastern Orthodox Church, Mongols, Catharism, Hussites, Waldensians, Old Prussians, and political enemi...
, and intermarried with the royal family of Jerusalem
Kingdom of Jerusalem

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Christianity kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. It lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, Israel, was destroyed by the Mamluks....
 and the Byzantine
Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
 Imperial families of Comnenus, Angelus
List of Byzantine Emperors

This is a list of the Emperors of the late Eastern Roman Empire, commonly known as the Byzantine Empire by modern historians. This list does not include numerous co-emperors who never attained sole or senior status as rulers....
 and Palaeologus.

Montferrat was briefly controlled by Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
 (1533-1536) before it passed to the Gonzaga
House of Gonzaga

The Gonzaga family ruled Mantua in Northern Italy from 1328 to 1708. See Duchy of Mantua for a list of rulers.In 1433, Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga assumed the title of Marquis of Mantua, and in 1530 Federico II of Gonzaga received the title of Duke of Mantua....
 Dukes of Mantua
Duchy of Mantua

The Duchy of Mantua was a duchy in Lombardy, Northern Italy, subject to the Holy Roman Empire....
 (1536-1708). In 1574, Montferrat was raised to a Duchy
Duchy of Montferrat

The Duchy of Montferrat was created out of what was left of the March of Montferrat after the last Palaeologus heir had died and the margraviate been briefly controlled by Spain ....
 by Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor

Maximilian II was king of Bohemia from 1562, king of Hungary from 1563, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1564 and king of the Romans until his death....
. With the War of the Mantuan Succession
War of the Mantuan Succession

The War of the Mantuan Succession was a peripheral part of the Thirty Years' War. Its casus belli was the extinction of the direct male line of the House of Gonzaga in December 1627....
 (1628-1631) a piece of the duchy passed to the Duchy of Savoy
House of Savoy

The House of Savoy was formed in the early eleventh century in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, it grew from ruling a small county in that region to eventually rule the Kingdom of Italy until the end of the Second World War....
, the remainder passing to Savoy in 1708, as Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor
Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor

Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor Habsburg , Holy Roman emperor, King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, was the second son of the emperor Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor and his first wife Maria Anna of Spain....
 gained possession of the Gonzaga territory.The next heir of the House of Gonzaga
House of Gonzaga

The Gonzaga family ruled Mantua in Northern Italy from 1328 to 1708. See Duchy of Mantua for a list of rulers.In 1433, Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga assumed the title of Marquis of Mantua, and in 1530 Federico II of Gonzaga received the title of Duke of Mantua....
 was later compensated by giving Duchy of Teschen in Silesia
Silesia

Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in present-day Poland, with parts in the Czech Republic and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas....
 to them

The Duchy of Montferrat had an area of 2750 km², and consisted of two separate parts bordered by the Duchy of Savoy
Duchy of Savoy

From 1416 to 1714, the territories of the House of Savoy were known as the Duchy of Savoy . The Duchy was a state in the northern part of the Italian Peninsula, with some territories that are now in France....
, the Duchy of Milan
Duchy of Milan

The Duchy of Milan was a state in northern Italy from 1394 to 1797. It was part of the Holy Roman Empire, by then a decentralised entity, and was ruled by several dynasties, most of them major powers from outside Italy....
, and the Republic of Genoa
Republic of Genoa

The Most Serene Republic of Genoa was an independent state in Liguria on the northwestern Italy coast from the 11th century to 1797, when it was invaded by armies of First French Republic under Napoleon I of France....
. Casale Monferrato
Casale Monferrato

Casale Monferrato is a town in the Piedmont region of north-west Italy, part of the province of Alessandria. It is situated about 60 km east of Turin on the right bank of the Po River, where the river runs at the foot of the Monferrato hills....
 is considered its historic capital, although Asti
Asti

Asti is a city and comune of c. 75,000 inhabitants located in the Piedmont region of north-western Italy, about 55 kilometres east of Turin in the plain of the Tanaro River....
 is deemed to be the current capital of Monferrato.

Culture


Sacro Monte di Crea

The Sacred Mountain of Crea
Sacro Monte di Crea

The Sacro Monte di Crea is a Roman Catholic sanctuary in the comune of Serralunga di Crea, Piedmont, northern Italy. It is reached via a steeply ascending route which winds through a wooded natural park, whose flora where catalogued by the Casale Monferrato photographer and polymath Francesco Negri....
 (Italian: Sacro Monte di Crea) is a Roman Catholic sanctuary in the comune
Comune

In Italy, the comune, is the basic administrative division of both provinces and regions, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality....
 of Serralunga di Crea
Serralunga di Crea

Serralunga di Crea is a comune in the Province of Alessandria in the Italy region Piedmont, located about 45 km east of Turin and about 35 km northwest of Alessandria....
 (Montferrat), near Alessandria
Alessandria

Alessandria is a city in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. The city is sited on the alluvial plane between the Tanaro River and the Bormida River rivers, c....
. It is one of the nine Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy
Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy

The Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy are a series of nine groups of chapels and other Architecture features created in northern Italy during the seventeenth and late sixteenth century....
, included in UNESCO World Heritage list.
Its construction was begun in 1589, around a former Sanctuary of St. Mary whose creation is traditionally attributed St. Eusebius, around 350 AD.





See also

  • Rulers of Montferrat
    Rulers of Montferrat

    The Marquises and Dukes of Montferrat were the rulers of a territory in Piedmont south of the Po River and east of Turin called Montferrat. The March of Montferrat was created by Berengar II of Italy in 950 during a redistribution of power in the northwest of his kingdom....
    , for a full list of marquesses and dukes
  • March of Montferrat
  • Duchy of Montferrat
    Duchy of Montferrat

    The Duchy of Montferrat was created out of what was left of the March of Montferrat after the last Palaeologus heir had died and the margraviate been briefly controlled by Spain ....


Sources



External links