Part 1/2          

Forte and Gavi from the bridge of Borgonuovo, the tower with a drawbridge that gave access to the city-walls and the sentry box at the center of the bridge. (Print 1700)
Gavi and the Fort photographed from the road (at the bottom right) that goes up to the Sanctuary of Nostra Signora della Guardia at 403 msl.

View of Val Lemme; The fort on Monte Moro and Gavi di Ponente at his feet, on the horizon the Apennines  that separates from Genoa. The beginning of the plateau of Vallegge (bottom right) which borders the river Lemme.
View from west. La Chiappa the old quarry on the flank of Mount Moro under the Forte. This stone was used to build the houses of Gavi. On the right the Lemme that flows aside Gavi and continues to Basaluzzo.

Piazza Dante, the "Piaggio" and on the right the road to Carrosio.

The building of primary schools Leopoldo Gaetano Romano in Piazza Dante and all around, what is now the center and the new part of Gavi. Here it still looks like uninhabited, the edge of the city. On the right you see the old Hosiery "Morasso", it closed in the 70s, this was a pillar of the economy and employment in Gavi.

Overview from east; main entrance of Gavi coming from Arquata and Serravalle Srivia, the road on the left is Via S. Eusebio.


Bridge of Borgonuovo. Built entirely of stones, it has withstood floods that have submerged it.

Gavi from the Forte: Today Gavi has about 4,500 inhabitants, but at the beginning of the century exceeded 8,000 units.


Vintage photo of Cheirasca                     ( Foto attuale nella pag. informazioni. )


Old bridge of Neirone (named after the creek that you see under the bridge), at the west entrance of Gavi. The only access within the walls of the city from the west,  one of the four gates of Gavi, called "Gateway La Chiappa".

From under the bridge, we see the Old Molino (mill) Neirone, the water channeled upstream and falling turns the great wheel which drives the grindstone and all the mechanisms for a perfect grinding of the wheat; kept in perfect condition by the owners and still working and active.( See page with explanationin this site )
 

2nd part and more photos                                           
Gavi has been defined  a small chest of art and history".

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The town of Gavi is at the center of the valley of Lemme or Vallemme, geographically, historically and commercially.

The Valley of the Lemme (see website), so named after the river that flows through it, born from a nozzle, by the pass of Bocchetta in the Apennines between Liguria and Piedmont.

This valley has always been over thousands of years one of the most important transit routes for both military and merchant from the sea of ​​Genoa and the continental lands.
Lemme is thirty kilometers  long and ends in the Orba river in the Po Valley.

The valley is narrow and purely from the Apennine Bocchetta until Fracconalto through Voltaggio until Carrosio, at Gavi appears enlarged and panoramic and narrows up immediately to close just outside the town.

To Francavilla one another, the small plain of Vallegge, the plateau of Rovereto and the Plain of Bisio on the right side of the Lemme, while on the left, the little Mignona plain and the plateau of St. Christoforo.

In Francavilla buttresses die and hills fade towards the plain of Alessandria.

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Mentioned in documents from before the year 1000 Gavi belonged to the Committee of Tortona, then took possession the Marquisate of Gavi, which in 1162 was placed under the protection of Alexandria and in 1202 ceded its rights to Genoa.

In 1349 goes to the Visconti of Genoa and remained until the end of the fifteenth century. When it became a fief of  the family Guasco.

In 1528 he returned to Genoa with which followed the fortunes until the transition to the Savoy.

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Since 1860 is part of the province of Alessandria, today has about 4,500 inhabitants, but still at the beginning of the century exceeded 8,000 units; this justifies the title of city that always has and deserves.

In the Sixties with the economic boom became  popular thanks  the emerge of peripheral tourism.
 The valley of Lemme, but especially Gavi with its confluence of several neuralgic roads has returned to be traveled, visited and savored, recovering its role as road center between Genoa and the north, that already in the past had helped to give it a reputation: economic and artistic.



Palazzo Pinelli-Serra

In the heart of the historic center of Gavi stands the Palazzo that Pinelli, noble Genoese ghibellines, still present in the castle of Tagliolo,  built at the beginning of 600.
And likely it was ordered by Agostino Pinelli, Doge of Genoa from 1605 to 1611. Of sober beauty is decreasing in three floors, with the steeply sloping roof and a time, as glimpsed, was classically painted. It has a remarkable hall, flowing into the already vast and beautiful garden by a loggia with three frames holding the ballroom on the main floor with three windows on the street and three on the inside that open into a balcony in shelves, with beautiful railing, perhaps added later .
In 1813 it was bought by Serra, Genoese Marquis  with vast properties' land in Gavi. In the last war it was used as a grammar school by the Sisters Pietrine.
It was sold in 1948 to the family Milanesi, while the smaller palace, artistically similar, on the opposite side of Via Mameli, went  to the family Allara.


 

The Cheirasca

Built in 6OO by the noble family of Novi the Ricchini, it is a large building that surrounds two inner courtyards  the one place in the western part served as patron and the other the country.
On the left by the main gate opens the church dedicated to Our Madonna of Health, where the interior in the top opens a grate delimiting the place of the nobles which could enter directly from the main floor. The same characteristic is present in the Chapel of Toledana.

Interesting the outer staircase leading from the courtyard to the first floor. Well-preserved frescoes of the two sundials (southward to the outside and to the east in the yard) and the coat of arms. A part of the building, which includes a hundred rooms, was served for the summer holidays of students Benedictine and are still visible bedrooms numbered.

In 1872 the farm was passed to the family Romanengo of Genoa which gave it way for £. 200,000 to Agent exchange Folz. In 1924 after a brief membership by Ottonello went to Carmi in 1935.
Recently, part of the building that separates the two courtyards and already used as a spinning mill has been beautifully and rational, renovated.

Etymology of Cheirasca, which is also the name of the little valley where the buildig is, you can think of radical cher and ascus to "grazing on stream", although military maps of the '800 appeared in the form of dialect • Cajasca.

This entry was posted in "Yesterday and today, the Gavi", unique number by the Pro Loco of Gavi of May 1975
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In 1988 the building was sold by Carmi, renovated and transformed into a hotel restaurant Conference Centre, while maintaining the beauty and the original architectural features.

2nd part  and more photos