Lusignano (or Lüxignan in Ligurian) is a hamlet in the municipality of Albenga, in the province of Savona, Italy. It is located about 4 km from the town of Albenga in a narrow strip of plain between the river Centa and the foothills bordering the plain to the south. The mountains are called the rock of pistulè. The name derives from the fundi rustic as Antognano, Aregliano, Velirano, Verano, all large-scale and exploiting the fertile plain.
The country is crossed by a river named Rio Carpaneto. The town developed along the ridge with a rather complex system, likely evidence of a more ancient origin than the other city of the plain.
During the excavations for the construction of a new residential complex in the region of in Rusineo, there were the ruins of a Roman villa of considerable size, which indicates a Roman presence in the area.
Geography Lusignano is in the first hinterland of Albenga, in the west Riviera. Its historical part is on the hills, including the parts of the expansion, to broaden the town boasts the surrounding plan. At the end of the 20th century there was an expansion of cottages in the surrounding area. However, the significant part coincides with the historical part, that is developed with a main street, Via Enrico D'Aste. It starting from the bottom tapering through the village, on its way this is different squares, also of limited size. The upper part of the route has been subject to redevelopment in 2011 with a project and funds from the Region of Liguria. The character is a village built on sloping ground, in the valley of the Rio Carpaneto. The landmark of the country is definitely the bell, even if it is dominated by the presence of the nearby Mount Pisciavino.
History
The first settlements found date back to Roman times, but it is possible that Lusignano was one of the areas where the first inhabitants of the plain had settled: the slightly raised ground allows a safe shelter from the floods of the Centa river that crosses the Albenga plain; all this suggests that even in pre-Roman times the area was already inhabited or at least frequented.
With the end of the Roman era, even if without evidence, it is quite probable that the Lusignano area also developed. It is certain that the church dates back to before the 13th century, since the parish church, dedicated to Santa Margherita d'Antiochia, has a baptismal font and the presbytery from that historical period inside. In the book of the confreres of the local Confraternity of San Bartolomeo Apostolo, the first members date back to the 15th century, even if it is written that not all the confreres are present. In the Statutes of Albenga of 1288 there are various references to the town, which is called Luxignanum.
It is said that with a decree of 13 January 1313, the archdeacon of the cathedral had the prebend of S. Maria di Lusignano; it is not clear whether it was referring to some church or convent that is now lost, or if it was a spelling mistake and referring to the church of Santa Margherita.
Towards the middle of the fourteenth century there is certain information that Lusignano, together with San Fedele, Villanova, Ligo, Marta and Bossoleto were administratively under the control of the San Siro district of the city of Albenga, its laws and its magistrates. In 1418, among others, a certain Emmanuele Riva di Lusignano was chosen to represent the City of Albenga to the Doge of Genoa. In the period that goes from the fifteenth century to the nineteenth century, some villas were built, such as the one "del Vescovo"; in particular we have news from the text by Gio Ambrogio Paneri, Description of the city and countryside of Albenga, published in 1625 where he indicates Lusignano as a place of otium (transl. of idleness), describing it as a very delightful villa, where there are many houses and beautiful gardens of citizens, among which the pride of the former Prospero Cepolla, which now belongs to Gio Francesco de lords Counts Della Lengueglia. In these years there was the division of the hamlets under the aegis of the lords of the city, where Lusignano was under the Cepolla.
In 1615 the notary Enrico Riva left his inheritance to make a dowry to all the spinsters of Lusignano. In 1680 we have the news that this Bonifacio Bamonte, canon of the cathedral and rector of the church of Lusignano who was accused of committing acts of filth and crimes, for which he had to intervene with an absolute, Pope Clement XII.
When Napoleon stayed in Albenga in 1796, he plundered all the communities, including that of Lusignano which saw many of its treasures disappear: some sacred objects and the statue of San Bartolomeo were saved. The chests and related processional statues are from the mid-nineteenth century, moreover the statue of Christ above the altar of the parish has been attributed to Anton Maria Maragliano or to his school.
When the whole community of Albenga passed in 1797 under the new government of the Ligurian Republic it formed a separate municipality from Albenga together with San Fedele, which will return under the Albenganian administrative body only with the annexation to the First French Empire in 1804.
Testimony of the 19th century
The small town has the good fortune to host during the 19th century the comtesse de Genlis, writer and pedagogist, gifted with a liberal education, expounded her theory pedagogical in the treatise Adéle and Theodore , a novel written in Lusignano. It takes the aspect of the days she lives between here and nearby Albenga, she describes that the shepherdesses used to adorn their hair with flowers picked from the field and even if humble they are very elegant in their bearing.
Modern age In the nineteenth century the Rolandi family lived in Lusignano, from which Vittorio Rolandi Ricci descended, probably born in their villa in the country in 1860. The town was spared from the great earthquake of 1887 which destroyed some of the ingaune towers and for this reason February 23, the anniversary of the earthquake, the town had a big party with a procession to thank San Bartolomeo for having saved the town. On February 2, 1880, Luisa Cepollini d'Alto and Caprauna was born in Lusignano, in the Villa Prospera owned by the Cepollini family; on Holy Thursday 1897 she received the call to the religious service then on April 9, 1900, she entered the Institute of Turin and on June 11 in Lyon for the novitiate. In September 1905 she made her perpetual vows with the name of Sister Giuseppina di Gesù she was a Sister of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She died in Turin on June 21, 1917, and is buried in the chapel of the Institute. She has been subject to the process of beatification since 1966, with her appointment as a Servant of God.
During the World War I she made her great contribution to the victory of Italy, and during the second it was a country whose hills gave refuge to the partisans, who according to legends and findings deposited many of their armament in the abundant caves. During the war in the main square the Nazis carried out the death sentences of some partisans and civilians: on December 6, 1944, Giovanni Gitotta and Francesco De Paoli were shot in front of the Perseghini furnace. On January 31, 1945, Luciano Luberti, together with the former partisan Luciano Ghio and the German lieutenant Willy Angel, sacked the house and the stable of Andreino Bruno who was then killed by the hand of Luberti with Angel's gun.
Lusignano and San Fedele were the link between the city of Albenga and the mountain fighters. For this reason, between November '44 and February '45 the localities were subjected to German interference. The German troops occupied Lusignano and Lieutenant Willy Angel led the group. The Germans occupied several places, such as the Oratory of San Bartolomeo or private homes.
The events of December 13, 1944 When the sun had not yet risen, on the morning of December 13, 1944, a search of all the houses in the town was carried out by German soldiers, who finding nothing forced the entire population to gather in the central square, including women and children. Here they separated the men from women and children, leaving the entire population under the gunfire for a period of time, shouting at those who moved too much. Luciano Luberti, who commanded the troops together with the German lieutenant commander, was present and interrogated. Given the rain that had come out, the priest, Don Remoino, opened the doors of the parish church and the military allowed the women and children to take shelter.
Towards the end of the morning the children and women were allowed to return home, while the men were forced to remain in the square until the roundups were over. However, shortly afterwards, two men tried to escape, one was chased through the streets of the town, captured and shot on the spot after a few meters, the other tried to escape through the Perseghini furnace, but found himself facing a wall too high to be bypassed, and he too was shot on the spot. These two people helped the partisans, but they were not part of it.
Much worse could have gone: in that morning some guns were to be transferred which were hidden among the wood of the countryside to be taken to the mountains, this operation would have had to be carried out by two partisans, Tullio called "Volpe" and Manfro called "Cornacchia ". However, Tullio's delay allowed Manfro to be warned of the presence of the Nazis in the town, and to postpone the operation; some periods later Manfro was arrested and tortured by the "executioner" Luciano Luberti. For the roundups of Lusignano and San Fedele Mauro Sansoni was arrested and taken to Savona, who was then shot on April 28 in the Priamar fortress.
Andreino Bruno On the night of December 29, the German army collaborator Bruno Camilletti, while his wife Amelia Brocco was on guard, placed a musket and several ammunition in the Bruno family's henhouse, some of which scattered on the ground. The following morning he reported the young Andreino Giulio Bruno, born in 1926, to the Germans. At 19.30 on the 30th about thirty soldiers surrounded the house commanded by lieutenant Hangel, the Camillettis went to the chicken coop without fail, taking what was hidden the day before, giving proof of the guilt of the eighteen year old who was arrested; the spouses themselves wore the German uniform. The Cammillettis wanted to take revenge for a complaint received some time before for a theft of grapes. The young man was beaten and tortured all night. The next day at 9 in the morning the young Andreino Bruno was taken to the Inferno Region, in nearby San Fedele and killed with a gunshot to the back of the head. Luciano Luberti kicked his body by breaking some limbs to make him enter the pit in the ground which was too small. As usual, the Bruno house was sacked by the Germans, gold, silver, linen, animals and clothes. The linen was found at Brocco's house in Laigueglia after the war.
The story was told on the evening of April 24, 1945, in the home of Candido Stien and his wife Maddalena Amoi in San Fedele, where a German soldier, Felix, who was in retreat, confided in the weight that oppressed him, telling what had happened, also calling his mother by the young man, Luigia Sardo Bruno. She herself was tortured and slapped by the black Brigadier Felice Bisterzo; but Felix recounted Brocco's faults, whom she also said was one of Lieutenant Angel's mistresses. The German soldier was killed the next day in a clash with the partisans during the retreat from Albenga.