Lomello

Infobox CityIT
img_coa = lomello-Stemma.gif
img_Coa_small=yes
official_name = Comune di Lomello
name = Lomello
region = Lombardy
province = Pavia (PV)
elevation_m = 99
area_total_km2 = 22.2
population_as_of = 2004-12-31All demographics and other statistics: Italian statistical institute Istat.]
population_total = 2430
population_density_km2 = 109
timezone = CET, UTC+1
coordinates = coord|45|7|N|8|48|E|type:city(2,430)_region:IT
frazioni =
telephone = 0384
postalcode = 27034
gentilic = Lomellesi
saint =
day =
mayor = Giuseppe Piovera
website =
mapy = 8.8000
mapx = 45.1167

Lomello is a "comune" (municipality) in the Province of Pavia in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 50 km southwest of Milan and about 30 km west of Pavia, on the right bank of the Agogna. It gives its name to the surrounding area, the Lomellina.Lomello borders the following municipalities: Ferrera Erbognone, Galliavola, Mede, Ottobiano, San Giorgio di Lomellina, Semiana, Velezzo Lomellina, Villa Biscossi.

History

Mentioned by Tolomeus for the first time, stil l in Roman times «Laumellum» was a well-known important «mansio» on the way of Via Regina, the main arterial road connecting Pavia with Turin along the way of the Galliae. The archeological excavations made by the Universities of Pavia and of London during the latest years, brought to light inscriptions, cemeteries of the Imperial period, as well as ruins of fortifications and an entrance door in the boundary wall. During the Longobard domination (569-774) Lomello began to know a considerable prosperity. This was the piace where Queen Theodolinda, widow of Autari, met Agilulfo, Duke of Turin, in 590. Queen Gundeberga, daughter of Theodolinda and wife of Arioaldo, after being charged with the betrayal her husband. was imprisoned in a tower in 629 and released after three years, thanks to the first «Judgement of God» ever celebrated in Italy. In the Carolingian period, it was the piace of a comitatus and in 1024 the fortress of Lomello was elected to the residence of the Palatine Counts while, in the same years, the basilica of Santa Maria MAggiore was built as a mark of wealth and power. In 1360 Lomello underwent first the domination of the Viscontis and, from 1450 to 1535, that of the Storzas. Francesco Sforza assigned the County of Lomello to the Crivellis, who held it continuously until 1760.

Main sights

*Remains of the medieval walls
*Remains of the Lombard-Romanesque Basilica of "Santa Maria Maggiore" (11th century)Built between 1025 and 1040 on the ruins of a Longobard building, il is one of the most important monuments of the Romanic-Lombard art. Il is on the pian of a Latin cross with a nave and two aisles. The nave has a wooden coffer ceiling. The left aisle is shorter than the right one and il is not rectilinear: this is an architectural solution used in the Romanic basilicas lo represent the tragedy of the Calvary. Through a little staircase behind the high altar you can go down lo the crypt, where columns and capitals remind of the ruins of the pre-existent church.
*Baptistery of "San Giovanni ad fontes" (5th-7th century).It is one of the most ancient Lombard baptisteries. The most recent studies date the lowest part back lo the fifth century, and the highest one lo the eighth. Il is on the plan of a cross with four little semi-circular apses alternated by some rectangular ones in the arms of the cross. Around the baptistery there are the ruins of Roman graves. The ancient hexagonal baptismal basin inside presents some hints of the original decoration and a cross with the inscription «piscina» (pool) on the perimeter low walls. The basin was used for the baptismal rite by aspersion that substituted the rite by immersion, abandoned in Italy from the sixth century on. Besides there are the fragments of a funeral stele, while in an apse you can see the ruins of the original floor.
*Romanesque church of "San Michele" (12th century).It is a real treasure of the Romanic-Lombard architecture as it is witnessed, in spite of the Baroque faQade, by a tile in the wall of the right aisle upon which there is the year of its foundation,1121, Thanks to careful repairs, the inside was brought again to its originai shape on the pian of a Latin cross with a nave and two aisles. on its walls you can see the hints of Medieval frescoes.
*The Castle (15th century).Situated on a hillock in the middle of the village, its origin dates back to the eleventh century, when the Palatine Counts extended their domain over the whole region. Almost entirely re-built by Antonio Crivelli from 1450 on, it was completed by his successors and particularly by Alessandro who, after the death of his wife, took up the ecclesiastical career, becoming a Cardinal in 1565. He was the client of the frescoes that you can see even nowadays in the internai halls and that represent an almanack with the Winds and the Zodiac in their vault, the monthly labours in their lunette. In the second hall you can admire the «Paradise of Dante» and some episodes from S. Catherine's life. The entrance tower with the hints of the draw-bridge and of the ditch are surely of the Sforza period.Now it is the town hall and on its first floor in the halls of the Civic Library you can admire the ruins of a mosaic once belonging to a Roman «villa» and representing geometrical decorations, magical symbols and the head of a Gorgon.In the hall of the Town Council there are works by the painter Silvio Santagostino (1884-1971) from Mortara, who better than anyone else, could fix the colours of the ground of Lomellina, its natural features and the faces of its people.

Demographic evolution

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References