Cavriago

Information

Altitude: 78 m.
Inhabitants: 9.818 (updated to January 1, 2015).
Post code: 42025.
Weekly market day: Wednesday.
Patron Saint: S. Giovanni (June 24).
Hamlets: Corte Tegge.

CONTACTS

0039 0522 373411 - Municipality
Municipality of Cavriago

How to get there

Cavriago

By car
Cavriago is 10 km south-sest of the Reggio Emilia Motorway exit. The Provincial Road running between Montecchio Emilia and Reggio Emilia (SP62) is easy to find and connects it with Cavriago as well.
It is possible to reach the town from Parma by using the National Road SS513, turning off for Montechiarugolo and then, arrived in the Province of Reggio Emilia, following road signs to Montecchio Emilia and Cavriago.

By train
TPER: Line route Reggio Emilia-Ciano d'Enza.

By bus
Bus No. 1 or Bus No. 94.

Location

Cavriago, a nearby appendix of Reggio Emilia (10 km), is a dynamic and modern productive centre which has undergone considerable economic and social development in recent years.

Reasons to visit

The charming Piazza Zanti, partly porticoed, to visit the Napoleonic Cemetery, the oldest of the four remaining in Italy, built in 1810. It has remained intact, a mysterious and fascinating place where it’s possible to rediscover the story of a number of important people of the Napoleonic era.

Entertainment

Today the centre of the town’s very intense cultural life is the “Multiplo” Cultural Centre, with theatre, film and opera, etc., and the Cremeria, a precious piece of industrial archaeology, now a centre for study, work and education.

Not to be missed

In Cavriago is a bust of Lenin, the only one in Italy, which is today a tourist attraction. The bronze statue of Lenin arrived in 1970 in Cavriago’s main square (which is still today referred to with the same pseudonym) as a present of the Soviet Socialist Republics Union made by the Russian embassy in Rome. It was made in 1922 by the Ukrainian workers of Lugansk and before reaching Val d’Enza it was spoils of war for the Fascist troops. Then came the Liberation and the bronze statue was recovered in Tuscany and given to the embassy. The bond with Cavriago was already special in 1919: it was at this time that Lenin read in the socialist daily newspaper “Avanti” the appreciation and support sent by the socialist movement of the town of Val d’Enza, and cited Cavriago in a speech to the Moscow Soviet. The bust of Lenin and its history inspired the song Piccola Pietroburgo by the group Offlaga Disco Pax.
It is now kept inside the Centro Culturale Multiplo.

Keeping fit

Between Reggio Emilia and Cavriago, between the landscape of the plain and the foothills, is the Bosco del rio Coviola. The wood, with excellent trees and a large community of small mammals and birds, offers walks and other leisure activities.

Appointments

Fat Ox Fair - Last Sunday of March
Food and wine exhibition, exhibition of ancient breed cattle from the Reggio Emilia province, exhibition of ancient traditional crafts, stands with craft and gastronomic products.

Ancient Bull Fair - Second Sunday of September
Market display of craft, food, organic and wellness products.

Historical notes

The name Cavriago comes from the Latin Curvus Ager, referring to the hilly nature of the area. Another suggestion is that the name comes from the Latin word Cuprum (copper), perhaps indicating the place where the red (or copper-coloured) earth begins.
Whatever the correct etymology may be, the first known reference to the town is in a map of December 1, 996, from the Parma Capitulary Archives where Countess Rolenda, the illegitimate daughter of Hugo, King of Italy, donated the castle and the chapel of “Corviaco” to a certain Paulone “a freeman and a faithful follower”.
This courtier thus became the first ruler of Cavriago and was probably the founder of the Bovini or Bruini family who dominated the town for more than four centuries. This was not without ferocious military and political struggles – due to the delicate strategic position of Cavriago Castle, located exactly between the lands of Parma and Reggio.
While wars and famine followed invasions of locusts and plagues, different nobles fought among themselves for Cavriago Castle which in the meantime, with the increasing population, was built with massive perimeter walls.
An old Parma chronicle refers to a battle fought outside Cavriago in 1215.
If they had to submit to a feudal lord, the inhabitants of Cavriago prefer to be under the yoke of the Este family which had promised to grant them various privileges. It was thus under the rule of Borso D’Este, in 1458, that the Ducal Canal was dug to “bring water and with this, fertility, to thousands of hectares of cultivated land”.
Still with particular regard for the town, in 1465 Borso D’Este offered the fiefdom of Cavriago to his favourite Teofilo Calcagnini. This latter was responsible for the production of the “Cavriago Charters”, the first complete collection of laws, drawn up on the basis of pre-existing local customs.
Calcagnini was not however, able to enjoy the generous gift for long. As soon as the internecine struggles between the various little Italian states flared up again, Cavriago was once more at the mercy of the various contenders. In 1482 on the one side there was Ercole I D’Este (the Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio) and on the other the Venetians, supported by Counts Rossi of Parma and Guido Torrello of Montechiarugolo. The latter was able to take advantage of a strategic error by Ercole D’Este who had left Reggio ungarrisoned, taking over and sacking Montecchio, then turning his attention to Cavriago and Reggio. At this point the inhabitants of Cavriago, tired of the depredations suffered at the hands of Reggio, offered the town spontaneously to Torrello. This incurred the wrath of the Council of Elders which, December 7, asked Ercole to reconquer Cavriago and solve the problem once and for all by razing the castle to the ground.

Useful links

• Museums in Cavriago
• Churches in Cavriago
• Where to stay in Cavriago
• Where to eat in Cavriago
• All files of Cavriago