my activations for DCI Award
I’m resident station for DCI BI011 Castello Rondolino Cavaglia’ & BI013 Castello di Colle di Chioso Cavaglia’
BI011 castello Rondolino
“Due to its particular geographical position, on the border between the Biella territory, the moraine area of the Serra and the Vercelli plain, the municipality has always been a place of transit, and has also been a center of diffusion of Christianity. In addition to the presence of the parish church of San Pietro (XIII century), Cavaglià was the seat of the two priories of Saints Vincent and Anastasius, dependent on the Abbey of Fruttuaria, and Santa Maria del Brianco. Already in the eleventh century the existence of the church of Santa Maria di Babilone was attested, a valuable baroque building built between 1620 and 1680, whose size, on an elliptical plan, with the large dome, dominates the cemetery that surrounds it. In the upper part of the village stands the eighteenth-century Parish Church of San Michele, designed by architect Filippo Castelli; the church has a baptismal font designed by Alessandro Antonelli. At the entrance to the town, the Rondolino Castle, rebuilt in the late nineteenth century in the neo-medieval style, is a symbol of the prestigious history of the town. …. “
“Due to its particular geographical position, on the border between the Biella territory, the moraine area of the Serra and the Vercelli plain, the municipality has always been a place of transit, and has also been a center of diffusion of Christianity. In addition to the presence of the parish church of San Pietro (XIII century), Cavaglià was the seat of the two priories of Saints Vincent and Anastasius, dependent on the Abbey of Fruttuaria, and Santa Maria del Brianco. Already in the eleventh century the existence of the church of Santa Maria di Babilone was attested, a valuable baroque building built between 1620 and 1680, whose size, on an elliptical plan, with the large dome, dominates the cemetery that surrounds it. In the upper part of the village stands the eighteenth-century Parish Church of San Michele, designed by architect Filippo Castelli; the church has a baptismal font designed by Alessandro Antonelli. At the entrance to the town, the Rondolino Castle, rebuilt in the late nineteenth century in the neo-medieval style, is a symbol of the prestigious history of the town. …. “
BI013 Castello di Colle Chioso
The castle seems to date from the first attestations to the first part of the year 1000. Conservation: archaeological site. Surface: 5000 square meters How to get there: on the hill to the north of the town of Cavaglià, near Biella. Background. “Cavaljaca or Cavaglià vecchia” is mentioned for the first time in a document of donation of goods to the Church of Vercelli in 961. In some subsequent documents, the Cavaglià site is cited among the donations that the emperor Otto I of Saxony bestows ( 963) to Count Aimone di Vercelli. The castle, however, built on the hill called Bricco or Chioso, is attested for the first time in an act dating back to 1304. Of this castle, unfortunately only a few traces remain visible and studied thanks to the interventions of some archaeological investigations, among which we remember the aerial survey published in the Atlas by the Archaeological Group of Vercelli. From these studies and written documents it can be said that its structure was irregular: it followed the circumference of the summit of the hill. The walls were more than a meter thick and went down the hill, enclosing several houses around them. The owners of this castle were the counts of Cavaglià, who claimed to be vassals of the bishop of Vercelli, and who were involved in the conflict between the municipalities of Vercelli and Ivrea, siding with the latter. In 1254 the counts of Cavaglià swore loyalty to the City of Vercelli and shortly after the center of Cavaglià became a free village. The castle continued to remain in operation probably until the fifteenth century, following the declining fortunes of the Cavaglià, but its ruins remained clearly visible until at least the beginning of the nineteenth century. To know more: Fortified places between Dora Baltea, Sesia and Po. Aerial view of surviving fortified architecture and abandoned sites, pp. 168-171, Vercelli 1992. www.archeovercelli.it (from which the images of this page are taken, we point out, on the site, also the article on the most recent excavations of the area).
