Overview

Asti, the capital in the center of Piedmont and the province of the same name, is a lively and charming city rich in history and with a glorious medieval past still visible today in the fortified houses and in the severed towers that overwhelm the baroque of its churches and the majesty of its eighteenth-century buildings.Surrounded by the hills of Langhe, Roero and Monferrato and crossed by the Tanaro river, it is famous for its DOC and DOCG wines exported all over the world.Defined in 2019 by Forbes magazine, the perfect destination for autumn, Asti and its territory offer, all year round, the best of a holiday in Italy: an enchanted landscape, a fascinating historic center, engaging traditions (Palio, fairs , Douja d’Or, Festival delle Sagre), international cultural proposals, a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere and excellent cuisine dominated by the prized white truffle.Vittorio Alfieri was born there, the actor and writer Giorgio Faletti and the musician Paolo Conte.

The etymology of the name Asti is still absolutely uncertain.According to some scholars, Asti derives from the Latin word hasta, used to indicate the pole planted where the assets of the debtors of the public treasury and of the proscribed were sold by auction. The toponym would therefore designate the successful foundation of a colony, whose main nucleus was made up of properties of Roman citizens.The hypotheses that trace the origin of the toponym Asti to the Ligurian root ast, “hill” and the Celtic-Germanic root ast “sheepfold” seem less likely. In both cases the primitive Ligurian (or Ligurian-Celtic) village would be indicated, around which pastoralism was practiced, located on the highest hill in the city. Asti, in reality, would have arisen not far from the Tanaro river. The inhabitants of Asti are the Astigiani with reference to the territory of the province of which Asti was the capital (Astesana or Asteggiana), perhaps the most appropriate would be the definition of Astesi.The historical event of Asti has been characterized since the beginning by its peculiar commercial vocation linked to the centrality with respect to the communication routes between the Ligurian coast, the Po valley and alpine passes.The foundation of Hasta dates back to 125-123 BC, years of the military campaigns of the consul Marco Fulvio Flacco in southern Piedmont. Located along via Fulvia – commissioned by Flacco himself, from which it took its name – in less than a century Hasta becomes a colony and develops into a populous and economically lively center, thanks also to the quality of its best known products, wine amphorae and terracotta pots exported everywhere, as Pliny the Elder writes, “by sea and by land”.Like other colonies in southern Piedmont, Hasta undergoes a progressive demographic and economic impoverishment starting from the third century. A.D., but also records new religious and social ferments with the establishment in the middle of the fourth century. of a Christian community, destined to soon become diocese.Episcopal see organized and attested already in 451 AD, when in 568 the Lombards descended to Italy, Asti for at least three centuries has seen its population drop and lost its prosperity, but once again its geographical position of the city, combined with the palatability of its fertile lands, pushes the Lombards to establish one of the four Piedmontese duchies in Asti, certainly one of the most important in Italy if the first known Duke of Asti is Gondoaldo, brother of Queen Teodolinda.With the arrival of the Franks at the end of the eighth century, the committee was governed by the duchy, governed by a count, that is an official of imperial appointment. After the death of Charlemagne, the progressive disintegration of the Empire and its organizational structures meant that in Asti, as in other peripheral realities, a large part of public goods became the patrimony of the Church and that, little by little, the authority of the bishop replaces the public administration in decay. And the Church will play an important role for Asti, ensuring even in the most difficult centuries of the city’s history that minimum of civil organization indispensable to a city.In the IX and X sec. the bishops of Asti, in addition to guaranteeing the functioning of Asti, implement a promotion policy towards the emerging classes of the city dedicated in particular to trade. The “rebirth” of the Asti trade is probably due precisely to the meeting of urban merchant needs with the organizational direction given by the bishop: this mutual exchange will lead to an institutional transformation of local powers and the affirmation of an orderly and stable structure from which both local and longer-term trade will benefit greatly.In the following century, the birth of the Municipality (1095) sanctioned the formal recognition by the bishop of the ability to self-govern these new social and economic forces.In 1141 the emperor Corrado III recognized in Asti the ius faciendi monetam, the right to beat one’s own currency.With the certainty of a “strong” currency, the trafficking of the Astigiani, along the Genoa-Oltralpe route, intensified, also in consideration of the fact that Asti had become for Genoa the indispensable intermediary in trade between the sea and Liguria and the ‘internal.The merchandise and money from Asti arrived almost everywhere in the fairs of small and large centers in Europe, from Burgundy to Champagne to the kingdom of France, and from there to the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, with certificates also in Pannonia , Spain and England.The municipal period sees Asti reach the peak of its political and economic power: the Municipality in fact extends its jurisdiction over much of southern Piedmont, while great wealth flows into the city thanks to the resourcefulness of its merchants, who were also soon pre-paid.In 1226, in fact, according to the testimony of the chronicler Ogerio Alfieri, the credit activity of the families of the “Lombards” of Asti began, operating at home in the government of one of the main municipalities in the Po Valley and exercising, at European level, a function prominent in the international credit market.Since the mid-thirteenth century, the families of the Asti elite have been divided into factions – as is the case in much of Italy. The growing situation of conflict undermines, at least in part, the autonomy of the municipal government and only a clever strategy of political alliances allows the urban ruling class to maintain political and administrative control over the city and the territory: Asti is confirmed rich and powerful .The attestation of the Palio custom, which took place that year near the walls of Alba, dates back to 1275 after the Asti victory over the Albesi during the conflict between Asti and Angiò and their respective allies in the region.At the end of the thirteenth century, Ogerio Alfieri, in weaving the praise of the “powerful municipality that dominates most of southern Piedmont”, notes that the property value declared in the land register by the taxpayers of Asti amounted to about half a million lire of real estate, while citizens’ securities capital reached an extraordinary figure of over two million lire in the Registrum (or land register).Over the course of just over a century Asti became so rich and splendid that it was known throughout Europe.Between the second half of the thirteenth century and 1348 the town was reorganized: an imposing city wall was built, noble families built majestic palaces and raised towers, the Cathedral was restored (1266: construction of the bell tower; 1309: interventions on the presbytery; 1348: conclusion of works). Asti is politically weakened by the first internal struggles, but remains the collector of enormous wealth: the Lombards of Asti become bankers and coiners of the Pope (1342-1362), finance the English crown (1338-1356) and operate as bankers of the Aragonese rulers (1391) ; Simone di Mirabello, son of an Asti banker and treasurer of the Duke of Brabant, was regent of Flanders between 1340 and 1346.The great wealth of the city catalyzes on Asti the expansionist aims of the emerging lordships of the Po valley: after a few decades of oscillating relationships of the urban magnatice class with the Marquis Monferrato and the Visconti, in 1387 the city and its territory, pass to the Orléans as a gift of Valentina, daughter of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, on the occasion of her marriage, with Ludovico di Touraine (from 1391 duke of Orleans). The elaboration of the Codex Astensis, the municipal liber iurium preserved in the Municipal Historical Archive, dates back to this phase, to be understood as the “ideological manifesto” of a solid urban ruling class, which claims the prestige of its past and the recognition of its own prerogatives by the new principles.The cohesion between the local patriciate and the dukes of Orleans will guarantee a further period of prosperity in Asti: the Società del Moleggio (1397) was born, which through the excavation of a new channel strengthens factories and mills in the city, while members of the Asti elite in the during the long domination of the Orléans (1387-1529) they assume key roles in the ducal administration.In 1529, with the treaties of Cambrai, Asti was ceded by the king of France, Francis I, to the emperor Charles V and from these, in 1531, to the infanta of Portugal Beatrice, wife of Charles II, duke of Savoy: the city , occupied for a long time by Spanish troops, it passed under direct Savoy rule only in 1575. At the time it was an important cornerstone of the Savoy kingdom for the dynasty.However, the social and economic crisis, starting from the 16th century, diminishes Asti’s political weight. Emanuele Tesauro wrote around the middle of the seventeenth century: “After various misfortunes, the happy fortune made this city finally rest under the shadow of the Royal House of Savoy”.In the 18th century Asti was one of the main theaters of military campaigns involving the Savoy state: from the war for the succession of Spain (1703), to the war for the succession of Austria (1745-46). The displacement of the borders of the Duchy to the east makes, however, the Asti stronghold less central, which will no longer live its own events of particular importance, except for two events: in 1797 the brief story of the Jacobean republic of Asti ended with the death of the rebels, and in 1821 the support to the Statute, granted by Carlo Alberto, by the bishop of Asti Antonino Faà di Bruno with a courageous pastoral letter addressed to the faithful.In 1853 Asti hosted the first congress of mutual aid companies of the Kingdom of Sardinia: a confirmation, together with the rooting of workers’ associations in the city, of Asti’s sensitivity to the new ferments of social solidarity.Finally, the tribute given by the Astigians in terms of participation, and unfortunately of the fallen, in the two world wars is great.Finally, it should be remembered that for the contribution offered to the Liberation struggle, Asti and its province have been awarded the gold medal for military valor for partisan activity.