Page 6 - Guida di Lanzo

tempo, gli consentirono di diventare protagonista della vita co-
munitaria. Poco lontano dall’ospedale realizzò l’Ospizio delle Or-
fanelle, per dare una casa e una sana educazione ad una quaranti-
na di bambine senza famiglia; inoltre fondò l’asilo infantile e creò
un Educandato femminile, dove le giovani ricevevano istruzione
e sani principii morali. Tutte queste opere create dal Beato Albert
vennero affidate alla Congregazione delle suore Vincenzine di
Maria Immacolata, anch’essa fondata dal Vicario Albert: “le Alber-
tine”. Nominato vescovo di Pinerolo da Papa Pio IX rinunciò per
rimanere a Lanzo. Federico Albert il 28 settembre 1876 morì pre-
maturamente cadendo da un’impalcatura innalzata dai muratori
che eseguivano dei lavori nella cappella della colonia agricola che
avrebbe dovuto dare istruzione e lavoro ai ragazzi più bisognosi.

Some archaeological findings of weapons and ‘terrecotte’, coins and tombstones, testify that
the Lanzo area was occupied at the time of Julius Ceasar. Many centuries later, Lanzo itself was
contended between the Bishops of Turin, the ‘Signori’ of Monferrato and the Savoy family. The history
dominion of this latter lineage, started in 1046 following the marriage of Adelaide of Susa and
Oddone of Savoy and it is consolidated through their children who entered Piedmont with feudal
rights rather than with a real power.
After the short dominion of Guglielmo, Marquis of Monferrato over the Lanzo territories, ano-
ther marriage, that of Giovanni of Monferrato and Margherita of Savoy, in 1296 determined
the return of Lanzo under the control of the Savoy. Following the premature death of Giovanni,
Margherita granted the ‘Statuti’ and managed to reinforce the fortifications of the Hamlet and to
renovate the Castle. On the death of Margherita (1349) her small ‘state’ went back to the Savoy
family, precisely to Amedeo VI, who confirmed the ‘Statuti’ of Lanzo.
In November 1361 a painful page of the history of this community was written: a well trained
free company, probably financed by the Monferrato family, violated at night time the Lanzo walls,
acting out killings, violence, fires, raids. The Count Amedeo VI together with nobles and soldiers
(among them the Prince D’Acaja) remained barricaded in the castle and once the battle was over
the Count and his court managed to save their lives and regained their freedom by paying their
assailants a large sum of money.
Following this the French troups occupied the
entire Piedmont region, destroying almost
all the castles, included the one of Lanzo and
only in 1559, with the intervention of the
Duke Emanuele Filiberto, the Savoy thanks to
the peace agreement of Chateaux Cambresis
(1559), regained the possession of Piedmont
and consequently of the ‘castellania’ of Lanzo
which was given to the powerful Provana fa-
mily. Later on the ‘castellania’ was the dowry
that Emanuele Filiberto granted his daughter
Maria, bride of Filippo d’Este. The government
of the d’Este family lasted 150 years and it
stood out for its ineptitude and avarice of its
rulers.
In 1720, in order to settle the disastrous
balance of the Ducato, Amedeo II of Savoy
declared void all the concessions given upon Torre Civica.
payment from his predecessors, deprived the
Marquis d’Este of his feud, dividing the ‘Castel-