Famous characters
Fausto Coppi
The Campionissimo, the name under which he is known, was born in Castellania in 1919.
Four times world champion as well as winner of five editions of Giro d’Italia and two editions of Tour de France, Coppi has become the symbol of passion and tenacity. His wins have represented the dream of an entire country looking for redemption after the difficult years of World War II.
In honour of Fasto Coppi, Castellania hosts the tomb where he is buried together with his brother and the house where Coppi grew up.
There is also an association called “Associazione del Campionissimo” and some museums dedicated to cycling have been locally constructed.
GIUSEPPE PELLIZZA DA VOLPEDO
The author of the famous picture “Il Quarto Stato” was born in Volpedo in 1868. After being part of Accademia di Belle Arti of Brera, he left it to join that of Florence under the guide of Giovanni Fattori.
His artistic career passes through different phases, from realism to a symbolic representation showed in the allegoric work “Lo specchio della vita”, which reminds to a stretch of the Curone Valley. He finally joined Socialism with the realization of the picture “Il Quarto Stato”, which has made him very famous and to which he dedicated 10 years of efforts and studies.
There are many pictures showing foreshortenings of the rural views of the region of Tortona, with details of the Curone Valley such as: “Il ponte”, “Il girotondo”, “Speranze deluse”.
ANGELO BARABINO
Born
in Tortona in 1883, the painter was close to Pellizza da Volpedo and to
the pointillist art. His works were showed in Brera, he took part in the
pointillist exhibition held in Paris in 1912 and, two years later, he
made a personal exhibition in Alessandria. He collaborated to the decoration
works of Palazzo Taverna in Novi Ligure and painted the triptych for the
Cappella dei caduti di Broni.
In many of his works it is possible to find a clear reference to the panorama of the Tortona region, with a light able to stress the delicacy of its views.
don luigi orione
He
was born in Pontecurone on the 23rd June of 1872 and can be considered
as one of the most important representative characters of the Christianity
of the last century.
He is of humble origins, he grew up according to the rules of the Christian religion and started to develop a vocation to charity during his stay in Voghera with Sacerdoti di San Francesco (Saint Francesco’s Priests). This vocation became more and more deep during his three-years stay with Don Bosco and his collaborators and during the hard seminarian apprenticeship.
