Roccaforte Ligure
Exploring Roccaforte Ligure
Hello friends! Today, I will talk to you about the municipality of Roccaforte Ligure, a very interesting town in the province of Alessandria, in Piedmont. With its 129 inhabitants, Roccaforte Ligure is a peaceful place with a lot of history to tell.
The history of Roccaforte Ligure
The history of the municipality is very interesting. In fact, Roccaforte Ligure was already an ancient territory of the Abbazia di San Colombano. Over the centuries, it has been under the rule of many lords, such as the Vescovi di Tortona and the Malaspina, before passing to the lords of Montalto Pavese. In the 15th century, Roccaforte Ligure became a fief of the Genoese Spinola family, who elevated it to a marquisate in 1644, with Rocchetta, Vigo, Centrassi, and associating it with the county of Ronco and the consignorie of Busalla, Montessoro and Borgo de 'Fornari.
Napoleon then built Borgonuovo della Rocchetta, a commercial center on the opposite bank of the Sisola river that flows into the Borbera, with the aim of increasing revenue through tolls on travelers of the Via del Sale or Via dei Feudi imperiali, which from the port of Genoa rises up to Lombardy. With its inns, granaries, a slaughterhouse, a weighbridge for livestock and goods, stables, fountains and drinking troughs, covered washhouses, mills, a powder magazine, various houses to accommodate passing mule drivers, a daily market, a print shop, a new feud palace, a pretorial palace and a mint, Borgonuovo della Rocchetta became an important center for trade.
There were several noble families who ruled the fiefdom, including the Doria and the Gentile who were also co-owners of Busalla, Montessoro and Borgo dei Fornari.
The decline of Roccaforte Ligure
The Spinola family ruled the fiefdom for many years, but with Carlo Napoleone II (1741-1805) the fiefdom began to rapidly decline due to poor administration. This caused the financial ruin of the town, until the marquis was barred by the imperial government for insolvency in 1784. With no heirs, he left the administration of his property to his cousins Giovan Antonio (1760-55) and Giacomo Filippo Raggi (1777-54) and the marquisate they administered until 1797.
With the abolition of the Feudi Imperiali in 1797, Roccaforte Ligure was devastated by the Napoleonic army, such as the burning of the marquisal archive, intended to eliminate documents attesting to ancient property. Deposited in the division of Genoa and in the Province of Novi, in Liguria, in the Kingdom of Sardinia, Roccaforte Ligure in the second half of the 19th century was united with the province of Alessandria in 1859.
Conclusions
Roccaforte Ligure is a place that holds many stories and suggestions. Visiting it is like taking a dive into the past. I recommend going to see Borgonuovo della Rocchetta, a 17th century commercial center with many testimonies from its time, and the church of Sant'Antonio Abate, built by the marquis' brother. Until the next adventure, friends!
