Tortona

Sister cities

• Sanremo
• Jiangyin
• Weilburg
• Zevenaar
• Privas

History

Known in ancient times as Dertona, the city was probably the oldest colony under Roman rule in the westernmost section of the Valley of the Po, on the road leading from Genua (Genoa) to Placentia (Piacenza). The city was founded c. 123–118 BC at the junction of the great roads; the Via Postumia and the Via Aemilia Scauri which merged to become the Via Julia Augusta. The site made Dertona an important military station under the Romans. Strabo speaks of it as one of the most considerable towns in this part of Italy, and from Pliny wrote that it was a Roman colony. Velleius mentions it among those founded under the Republic, it appears to have been recolonised under Augustus; some inscriptions therefore give it the title of Julia Dertona. The assassin of Caesar, Brutus, encamped at Dertona on his march in pursuit of Mark Antony, after the Battle of Mutina, and it was one of the places where a body of troops was usually stationed during the later ages of the empire. A bishopric was founded at Tortona early, but its first bishops are purely legendary, like Saint Marcianus of Tortona, called the first bishop of Piedmont and a disciple of Barnabas, the companion of Paul. Until the 9th century, the city was under the rule of its bishop; in 1090 it became a free commune with the name of Terdona. In 1133 the diocese was separated from the archbishopric of Milan to the new archdiocese of Genoa (CE "Lombardy"). During the Middle Ages, Tortona was a faithful ally of the Guelphs and was destroyed several times, notably by Frederick Barbarossa, who captured it after a siege in 1155 and razed all its buildings to the ground. From 1260 to 1347 the city was dominated by a series of different Italian noble families and adventurers. In 1347, Tortona was decisively…