la chiesa di s - proloco agnadello

THE BATTLE OF AGNADELLO
CHURCH OF SAN VITTORE
The Battle of Agnadello was one of the most significant
battles of the War of the League of Cambrai, and one of
the major battles of the Italian Wars.
On 15 April 1509, a French army under the command of
Louis XII left Milan and invaded the Venetian territory.
To oppose its advance, Venice had massed a mercenary
army near Bergamo, jointly commanded by the Orsini
cousins, Bartolomeo d'Alviano and Niccolò di Pitigliano.
The Orsini had orders to avoid a direct confrontation with
the advancing French, and spent the next several weeks
engaging in light skirmishing.
By May 9, however, Louis had crossed the Adda River at
Cassano d'Adda. Alviano and Pitigliano, encamped around
the town of Treviglio, disagreed on how to deal with
Louis, since Alviano wanted to attack the French in
defiance of his orders; they finally decided to move south
towards the Po River in search of better positions.
On 14 May, as the Venetian army moved south, Alviano
was confronted by a French detachment under the
Seigneur de Chaumont, who had massed his troops around
the village of Agnadello. Alviano positioned his forces,
numbering around eight thousand, on a ridge overlooking
some vineyards. De Chaumont attempted to attack, first
with cavalry and then with Swiss pikemen, but the French,
forced to march up a hillside crossed with irrigation
ditches, which were soon filled with mud from the pouring
rain, were unable to breach the Venetian lines.
Pitigliano had been moving ahead of Alviano, and was
several miles away when the French began their attack. In
reply to Alviano's request for help, he sent a note
suggesting that a pitched battle should be avoided, and
continued his march south.
Meanwhile, Louis, with the remainder of the French army,
had reached Agnadello. The French now surrounded
Alviano on three sides and proceeded to destroy his forces
over the next three hours. The Venetian cavalry collapsed
and fled, and Alviano himself was wounded and captured.
Of his command, more than four thousand were killed.
Although Pitigliano had avoided engaging the French
directly, news of the battle reached him by that evening,
and the majority of his forces had deserted by morning.
Faced with the continued advance of the French army, he
hurriedly retreated towards Treviso and Venice. Louis then
proceeded to occupy the remainder of Lombardy.
The battle is mentioned in Machiavelli's "The Prince"
(Chapter 12), noting that in one day, the Venetians "lost
what it had taken them eight hundred years' exertion to
conquer."
The church, dedicated to Our Lady and to St Vittore was
built in 1748 and is a fine example of late Baroque style.
The monument, 38 meters long and 27 meters high, has a
single nave decorated with columns. On the sides of the
main altar there are two chancels: on the left there is the
magnificent pipe organ, on the right a fresco depicting St.
Cecilia painted by Gaetano Miola of Verona in 1942. The
five altars on the sides have marble balustrades and are
enriched with altarpieces.
The central altarpiece, painted between 1810 and 1820,
represents Mary Immaculate.
At the entrance, on the first altar on the left, there is the
painting dedicated to St. Joseph attributed to the painter
Carlo Innocenzo Carloni (1686-1775). The last altar on the
left is dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary after the
beautiful statue commissioned in 1899. The chapel also
houses the statue of St. Anthony of Padua.
On the two altars on the right St. John the Baptist and
Mary under the cross are represented, both paintings are
attributed to Fernando Porta.
Between 1956 and 1964, the parish purchased an altar
dating back to the end of the eighteenth century thus
creating the chapel of the Sacred Heart between the chapel
of St. Joseph and the one dedicated to Our Lady, enriched
with a painting by Bergamo Muzio Compagnoni
representing St. Mary Alacoque in adoration of the Sacred
Heart.
The vault of the nave is decorated with four frescoes
painted by the painter Gaetano Miola of Verona in 1942
and representing St. Vittore and St. Defendente, St.
Anthony of Padua and a Eucharistic Miracle, St.
Bernardino of Siena and St. Joseph.
In 1943 the same artist painted the large fresco on the apse
illustrating Christ the King among the Patron Saints of
Italy St. Francis and St. Catherine.
In the presbytery, at the sides of the central altarpiece,
there are two canvas attributed to the painter Fernando
Porta representing St. Defendente (right) and St. Vittore
(left).
The main door of the church is equipped with a neoclassic
inner door in wood built between 1805 and 1810.
On the main facade a stained glass depicts Mary, Mother
of the Church and the Popes of Vatican Council II: John
XXIII and Paul VI. It was commissioned in 1965 to the
painter and sculptor Domenico Colpani. In the same year
the author also created the high-relief on the external
facade showing St. Vittore on Horseback.
Annexed to the parish church and communicating with the
chapel of Our Lady, there is the so-called "Winter Chapel"
built in 1969. Its walls are decorated with some "tearings"
of frescoes taken from the ruins of the sixteenth century
church dedicated to St. Vittore and with a votive fresco
dating back to 1627, probably executed by Francesco De
Bravis of Pandino, which depicts the Madonna of Loreto
with other Saints.
The first pipe organ dates back of the eighteenth century.
In 1996 the instrument was completely restored and today
is included in the "historic organs" of Lombardy.
The bell tower consists of a basic structure, belonging to
the old church bell tower of the sixteenth century, and of a
final part rearranged in the eighteenth century. On the
outside there is a clock and the inside holds five bells.
CHURCH OF SAN BERNARDINO
CHURCH OF CASCINA COSTA CREMASCA
In 1621 the church, built in the fourteenth century, was
dedicated to St. Bernardine of Siena, the Franciscan saint
who preached in the area between 1417 and 1419. It is an
example of Romanesque-Gothic architecture, with simple
and essential forms.
The structure of the wall is very characteristic.
The facade, marked by buttresses and decorated on the
upper part with a frame of small blind arches made of
brickwork hosts a rose window and the low and wide
portal.
The interior has a single nave; the vault is sustained by
wooden beams and brickwork arches. The lacunar ceiling
shows geometric designs.
In the late XIX and early XX century, the painters
Giovanni and Domenico Zappettino of Bergamo left
several works in this church. On the triumphal arch that
delimits the presbytery there are: on the right St. Paul with
the sword; on the left St Peter with the keys; in the centre
the monogram of Christ surrounded by adoring angels. On
the other arches the four Evangelists are represented. On
the side walls there are the valuable fifteenth century
frescoes depicting Jesus taken from the cross, the
Madonna and Child, various Saints and Pilgrims,
attributed to the monk and painter Stefano of Pandino.
The church was restored for the first time in 1620 and,
after various vicissitudes, new restoration works started in
1994.
The Mass is celebrated every day and, at different times of
the year the pious practices of the Marian month, of the
Advent and Lent are held.
The church was built over the earlier sixteenth century
Oratory dedicated to St. Marco, the apse is square and on
the roof rises a small bell tower. The new church was built
after the will of the land owner, Bishop Premoli, and was
presumably inaugurated in 1686.
The building is in baroque style, with some lateRenaissance elements. The facade is simple and linear,
with a half oval gable, a three-mullioned window and
stucco works.
The elegant interior, painted in blue and yellow, has one
single nave divided in three bays and a presbytery. The
stuccoes enrich the whole church.
On the walls, there are four empty niches and two frescoes
of 1776: St. Francis from Sales and St. Frances Fremito de
Chantal.
The presbytery has an altar with a delicate frontal signed
by Peter Solari (1712). Above the altar, protected by a
glass, there is the famous fresco of the Madonna della
Vittoria, perhaps from the School of Piazza from Lodi,
altered in the nineteenth century.
CHURCH OF SANT'ANTONIO
North-east of Agnadello rises the bell tower of a church
dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua. You can reach it
through a country road, leaving the main road to Vailate
600 meters from Agnadello and passing through the farm
Paradiso, the bridge over the irrigation ditch (roggia) Brolo
and the one of roggia Badessa, next to a group of houses
belonging to a hamlet called Cascina St. Antonio.
The building, dating back to 1663, has an almost square
shape and is constituted of a church, a bell tower, the
keeper's house, a yard, all is surrounded by a wall.
The church is divided into two parts by a inner wall with
three large arcuated openings with gates.
A fresco representing the apparition of Our Lady of
Caravaggio can be found on the atrium wall. The main
altar is located on a step. On the central wall is a large
fresco representing St. Anthony of Padua, on the right a
small one dedicated to St. Defendente and a picture with
the image of the saint of Padua. The chapel with the altar
is dedicated to Our Lady of Carmine. The church hosts
two large statues: one of the Virgin May, the other of St.
Anthony of Padua. There are also a few votive pictures.
The building was restored in 1984. The picture of St.
Anthony and the seventeenth-century fresco discovered on
the wall behind the central altar were restored in 1999.
A Mass is celebrated every Sunday. On the last Monday of
July there is the traditional "feast of St. Anthony”.
THE SITE OF THE “DEADS FOR THE VICTORY”
On 14 May 1509, Louis XII won over the Venetians after
a difficult battle on the plain between Agnadello and
Mirabello.
A church, dedicated to “Our Lady of the Victory”, was
built not far from the irrigation ditch that marked the
boundary between the Duchy of Milan and the Republic of
Venice on the site where the king kept most of the artillery
during the battle.
The death of Louis XII in 1515 and the disastrous defeat of
the French army in Pavia with the capturing, in
Pizzighettone, of their King Francis I on 24 February
1525, marked the end of the French domination in Italy,
just sixteen years after the battle of Agnadello. A period
began, lasting over one hundred and fifty year, where
nobody, except the poor inhabitants of the nearby
countryside, took care of the church, which gradually went
to ruin under the eyes of the peasants, who had not the
means to restore it. Throughout the XVII century, the
place of the "Deads for the Victory”, marshy and
surrounded by thick woods, became a meeting place for
many robbers who infested the Gera d'Adda. Given the
poor state of the church of Our Lady of the Victory and of
its painting, Agostino Premili, Bishop of Concordia (a
village near Venice), but born in Crema, decided to
abandon the old church to its fate and to save the image of
Our Lady taking it from the apse and placing it in a new
church. Thus, being the owner of the land now called
"Costa Cremasca", he restructured and expanded an
elegant sixteenth-century Oratory dedicated to St. Mark
installing the ancient fresco of the “Our Lady of the
Victory”. The new church was opened on 5 August 1686.
On the site where the old church was , the people of
Agnadello placed a column and a large iron cross. Even
nowadays people hang garments and bandages on the iron
cross which are periodically burned to ask grace for
illnesses. It seems that the ritual dates back to an ancient
Celtic tradition, and is linked to the worship of Waters and
Sources Gods.