LA PIENA DEL PO DEL 1951

75 ANNI FA NEL NOVEMBRE 1951

LA GRANDE STORICA PIENA DEL PO

Ecco come l'asta di Po piacentina subì la piena

da ILPIACENZA.IT quotidiano online

articolo di Umberto Battini di giovedì 12 novembre 2026

CLICCA QUI E LEGGI 

CALENDASCO GURGLE

CALENDASCO GURGLE
COMMUNITY OF HERMITS OF THE MIDDLE AGES

by Umberto Battini
    scholar of S. Corrado and popularizer 

ROMITORIO DI CALENDASCO (PIACENZA)

 

Among the illustrious historians of the Franciscan TOR who recorded a small hermitage in Piacenza, it is certainly worth mentioning Fr. Raniero Luconi who in 1935 wrote: “Also at the beginning of the fourteenth century, in Piacenza, in a place called Gorgolare, there existed a community of hermits under the obedience of Friar Aristide, who, in the year 1315, gave the habit of Penance to Corrado Confalonieri from Piacenza, predicting that he would become a great saint”. 

 Always the p. Luconi nei “Comitia Generalia”, on the suppressed convents of the TOR writes: “22. Gorgolare? – Hermitage in the Piacenza area in the 14th century. Here in 1315 S. Corrado Confalonieri took the habit of penance from Friar Aristide”; although the hypothesis regarding the name of the ‘gorgolare’ is suspended, the certainty of this ‘hermitage of Piacenza’ is already given. 

Again p. Luconi, describing the penitent communities, leaves us this important memory: “Here is one in Calendasco, near Piacenza, placed under the obedience of Friar Aristide”.

 

 

SIEGE OF CALENDASCO CASTLE

IT WAS JANUARY 1482

SIEGE OF CALENDASCO CASTLE

FIEFDOM OF THE CONFALONIERI

The troops sent by Ludovico Il Moro, Lord of Milan

castello di Calendasco (Piacenza) immagine IA di U B 

 

It was January 1482 and the mighty castle of Calendasco, a short distance from the Po River and only 9 km from the city of Piacenza, was a fiefdom of Captain Antonio Confalonieri.

At the end of this winter siege, Captain Antonio Confalonieri is left to hold the castle, with his troops.

A historical fact to reflect on. And supported by the Archive Records of the time.

In this blog you will find some historical texts by Umberto Battini, a historical popularizer, on the fact and also historical articles published over time in the online newspaper ILPIACENZA.it

IL ROMITORIO E LO STORICO LUCONI

GORGOLARE DI CALENDASCO

COMUNITA' DI EREMITI DEL MEDIOEVO

di Umberto Battini

    studioso di S. Corrado e divulgatore 

 romitorio del "gorgolare" di Calendasco (Piacenza) e la statua di San Corrado Confalonieri

 

 

Tra gli storici insigni del TOR francescano che ebbero a registrare del piccolo eremo piacentino senz’altro va ricordato p. Raniero Luconi che nel 1935 scrive: “Sempre al principio del trecento esisteva a Piacenza, in un luogo detto Gorgolare, una comunità di eremiti sotto l’obbedienza di Frate Aristide, il quale, l’anno 1315, dette l’abito della Penitenza a Corrado Confalonieri da Piacenza, predicendogli che sarebbe divenuto un grande santo”. 

 

 Sempre il p. Luconi nei “Comitia Generalia”, sui conventi soppressi del TOR scrive: “22. Gorgolare? – Eremitorio nel piacentino del 1300. Qui nel 1315 S. Corrado Confalonieri prese l’abito di penitenza da Frate Aristide”; pur lasciando sospesa l’ipotesi circa il nome del ‘gorgolare’ si dà già la certezza di questo ‘eremitorio del piacentino’. 

 

Ancora p. Luconi, descrivendo le comunità penitenti ci lascia questa importante memoria: “Eccone una a Calendasco, presso Piacenza, posta sotto obbedienza di Frate Aristide”.

 

 

 

SHORT LIFE OF ST. CONRAD

SHORT LIFE OF ST. CONRAD
THE NOBLE FEUDAL LORD OF CALENDASCO

Calendasco Castle, owned by the Confalonieri family and now owned by the Municipality

 

BY UMBERTO BATTINI
HISTORIAN OF S. CORRADO AND POPULARIZER

This is a short life of the Holy Hermit Corrado Confalonieri, told succinctly.
He was born in 1290 in the castle of Calendasco, near the city of Piacenza, a place on the Po River.
His was a feudal family, living in the village castle, of the Guelph party and "soldiers" of the Bishop of Piacenza.
To hunt game, Corrado set fire to a forest in those places. The Lord of Piacenza, in that Middle Ages, was Galeazzo Visconti, a Milanese and Ghibelline.

A poor farmer is blamed for the fire. Corrado doesn't let that innocent man be brought to death. He admits guilt before Galeazzo Visconti and is ordered to pay damages. 

The Confalonieri family of Calendasco gives Corrado his share of the inheritance, with this money he pays the debt.
He becomes very poor, and with his wife they make a decision: she becomes nun Clarissa in Piacenza, he a tertiary penitent.

Saint Corrado retires among the Franciscan tertiaries to the small hermitage and hospital for pilgrims that was right in Calendasco.

16th-century painting in the church in Calendasco

 

He was welcomed in 1315, the year of the events, by Brother Aristide.

Around 1323 he left as a pilgrim for Assisi, Rome and then went to the Holy Land. On his return he stopped on the island of Malta, where however he was miserably hunted.

It disembarks at Messina, Sicily and heads towards the south-eastern part. He arrives in Noto, where he is welcomed into the pilgrims' hospital known as "di San Martino".

After a certain period he moved to the Valle dei Tre Pizzoni in Noto, where he lived inside a cave living as a hermit.

He will perform miracles while alive: he heals a very serious hernious child, then makes "Angels' Bread" appear, angelic bread inside the cave he gives to visitors.
This miracle also takes place before the Bishop of Syracuse, who was then also bishop of the City of Noto.

He died in the cave on February 19, 1351.
By popular fury he is made a Saint.
Over time, the church will also confirm this.
For centuries his body has been preserved in a silver Ark, which is kept inside the Cathedral of Noto, Sicily.

Calendasco has had him as the patron saint of the village for over four hundred years.

 

Ark contains the body of St. Corrado, preserved in Noto in Sicily

He was born physically in the village of Calendasco in 1290, and spiritually in 1315, retiring to the hospital of the Franciscan tertiaries.
In Noto he lived from 1343 to 1351 in Santità. In the city of Noto he is honored and venerated with 4 solemn processions during the year.
Saint Corrado Confalonieri, a Franciscan penitent hermit, layman and nobleman, who followed in Christ's footsteps on earth, in hiding and humility of life.

 

by Umberto Battini
historian of San Corrado and popularizer 

 

THE COAT OF ARMS OF THE CONFALONIERS

THE STORY BEFORE YOUR EYES
WOODEN CASSERONE
THE COAT OF ARMS OF THE CONFALONIERS
IN CALENDASCO CASTLE

by Umberto Battini
     scholar of S. Corrado and historical popularizer

 

In the upper hall of Calendasco Castle, the wooden ceiling box, entirely painted with the coat of arms of the Confalonieri family, was miraculously saved.
Wooden ceiling from the 14th century as well as the castle.
It is the living testimony that they lived here with pride, having the rooms where I lived decorated daily. 

Attached to the hall there is also a large room, also coffered in the same way, which is the chamber of the birth of San Corrado dei Confalonieri in 1290! And of course, with the same decorative coats of arms.

In my studies and research in the State Archives of Piacenza I have documented part of the history of the castle and the Confalonieri very well, and this can be read in my volume "S. Corrado Confalonieri - The Unpublished Piacenza Documents" of 2006.

 

Today the research has gone on and on a long way, also regarding the Confalonieri family of the branch that physically lived in Calendasco, inside the castle and I will explain them in a future book of mine which I have been working diligently on for some time.

This coat of arms ceiling is also an energetic proof of the active and very noble presence of the Confalonieri here in this castle of Calendasco: they were beloved feudal lords.
In some ways outside the confines of that Middle Ages which makes us believe that the feudal lords were all desposed or exploitative, and in the next volume this fact will also be discussed.

A unique fact is that of the Confalonieri in Calendasco, who nowhere else in the Piacenza area where the family's residents lived can we find profound traces of their residence as ancestral feudal lords.

A defensive castle but at the same time permanently inhabited by the Confalonieri, even if this may seem strange to us today due to the fact that this castle, now bare, is spartan and massive, but instead the facts and documents of the time speak differently.
 
Umberto Battini
scholar of San Corrado and historical popularizer

 

IF YOU COPY SOMETHING CITE THE SOURCE

 

 

EX EODEM LOCO

IL LEGATO SANCTI CONRADI

DEL 9 AGOSTO 1617 

La pagina 12 mette in chiaro che il culto era da rinvigorire nel borgo di Calendasco, luogo nel quale lo stesso Santo, aveva tratto la sua origine terrena. Atto notarile scritto in Curia Vescovile a Piacenza.

 

SOME RELEVANT QUESTIONS ON CALENDASCO CASTLE

SOME RELEVANT QUESTIONS
ON CALENDASCO CASTLE

There are sometimes very "curious" data circulating

Calendasco Castle photo UB

It is legitimate to ask "historical" questions about Calendasco Castle (not to be confused with the recetto).
In fact, there are truly "extensive" data circulating that some can even believe in good faith.
But is that really the case?

Question 1

Has the castle ever had 4 towers? Let's say clearly: no!
Yet this extremely false figure is circulating. 
The castrum as you see it has always had only one tower, cylindrical, next to the drawbridge.
But in some books, the data circulates, and some even today, with extreme ignorance, support it. To come to see is to believe: one tower only.

 

Question 2

Did it belong to other feudal lords before the Confalonieri?
First of all came the episcopal reception! Then the castle: have you seen the castle notarial deeds of anyone other than the Confalonieri?  
Some tips led us to check. A long time ago already.
Some misunderstanding of reading ancient notarial papers about the fact.  
It's not raining on the Confalonieri. Not even on the time of the birth of Saint Conrad (1290).
But this is not the place to give data, cards, of the fact!
Do not forget the Legate of 1617, notary of the Curia. 

Question 3

Some wrote that it was "destroyed at the base" by the Ghibellines of Piacenza in the 14th century.
Someone repeats it, so "copy and paste" to this day!  
But does this seem like a true historical fact to you? In your opinion was it really razed to the ground and destroyed? 
Here too we are not putting the answer now, but on the other hand in black and white in due course.
In the meantime, let's answer the "fact" of whether this happened or not, your intelligence.
 

Question 4

Did the Farnese have a hard hand with the Confalonieri of Calendasco? (Not from other places as we know). So also about the cult of San Corrado in Piacenza?
And this is because of Confalonieri, feudal lord and inhabitant and resident of Calendasco, who killed the son of Pope Paul III, Pierluigi Farnese, with others in the city of Piacenza in 1547? 
Unfortunately, the cult was stopped in Piacenza and its territory, until the expulsion, 40 years after the event, of the feudal Confalonieri of Calendasco. Paper in hand, from the originals. 

A historical answer exists. To every question. Just look for her! Sometimes you can't achieve the intent, then you have to use "historical intelligence" by connecting data and dates.

For concreteness, we will then provide data from each book, author, page, and year of publication where the many incorrect data are cited.

Umberto Battini
historical popularizer 

 

 

A DEVOTIONAL HYPOTHESIS

A DEVOTIONAL HYPOTHESIS
BRINGING SAN CORRADO CONFALONIERI 

BACK TO ITS NATIVE PLACES
 
Calendasco where he was born in the body and then converted in the hermitage and in Piacenza

 

l'Arca con il corpo di San Corrado  Traslazione di Noto del 2010 foto Umberto Battini

 

 

 

Devotional wishful thinking, perhaps one day to be able to see the Ark of San Corrado displayed in the Church of Calendasco and then carried in procession, passing through the hospitable hermitage where it was welcomed in 1315 and where it converted after the fire.
And then the passage to the Confalonieri Castle where he was born in 1290.
With obviously the stop in Piacenza too.
Wishful thinking, a simple devotional dream, but who knows!
It would be up to the Religious and Civil Authorities to carry out the entire organizational process.
Never put brakes on the Divine Providence that every Christian must believe in and which is also extensively covered in Christian Doctrine. 

 

THE GURGULARE HERMITAGE

THE GURGULARE HERMITAGE 
HISTORIC PLACE OF CALENDASCO

detail of the entrance to the Romitorio medieval hospital "del Gorgolare" now private property

BY UMBERTO BATTINI
       POPULAR HISTORIAN

This text is part of a more substantial study, which appeared in newspaper articles in Piacenza and was published in books by the same Author

An interesting local historical question, but one that made headlines in volumes published in Rome and elsewhere a few centuries ago, concerns the hospital known as “of the gorgolare”, now incorporated into the small village of Calendasco.

We have done a careful search and it turns out that it was a place known both “geographically” and “topographically” as early as ’600 by well-known historians.
The first to deal with it in 1568 was the historian of Noto Girolamo Pugliese, in one of his study books dedicated to the patron saint of that Sicilian city, who holds his holy body.
In the village on the Po River in Calendasco, until a few years ago, although abandoned, there was still a mill on the Confaloniero stream, which had been completely intubated for several decades. 

 

Practically behind the current town hall built a century ago on the lawn annexed to the mill, as evidenced for example by the Napoleonic land registry.
The ancient place, still called “molino Baffoni” in 1800, which was its owner, had a water channel that turned at an angle right near the ancient medieval hospital. 
From this unmistakable sound of the waters, which broke in this curve, the particular and local name of “hospitio del gorgolare”, produced precisely by the gurgling of the waters.

Among the historians who mention the place, therefore also dear to San Corrado for its conversion, is an important volume published in 1935 in Macerata, written by the historian Raniero Luconi in which we read that “at the beginning of the fourteenth century there existed in Piacenza, in a place called Gorgolare, a community of hermits under the obedience of Friar Aristide” the superior of the small convent hospital for pilgrims in the village.

Also in a volume of the “Acta selecta” Franciscans published in Rome in 1944 “the hermitage of the Gorgolare is mentioned where S. Corrado Confalonieri took the habit at the hands of Brother Aristide”.

Another citation comes from the historian Raffaele Pazzelli who in the volume printed in Rome in 1958 by the General Curia of the Franciscan Tower cites verbatim, censoring all the tertiary places in Italy: “the third place whose memory has been handed down to us is the hermitage convent of Calendasco near Piacenza” located right next to the mill canal.

 

 BY UMBERTO BATTINI
        POPULAR HISTORIAN

 

This text is part of a more substantial study, which appeared in newspaper articles in Piacenza and was published in books by the same Author 

 

ANNO 2023 IL TG RAI TV AL ROMITORIO

IN OCCASIONE DELLA MOSTRA

"ANTROPOCENE

ARCHEOLOGIA DI PLASTICA"

Curata da Umberto Battini 

l'importante Mostra Evento

che si tenne nel 2023 

 

Nell'anno 2023 la Mostra Evento a Calendasco 

 

Esposti sotto al portico dell'antico medievale Hospitale Romitorio

di Calendasco, oggi abitazione della famiglia di Bruno Grassi,

decine di oggetti plastici, ritrovati nel Po in secca.

 

Sono pezzi di vario genere, plastica che inquina le acque,

rilasciando microplastiche per secoli.

 

Nell'occasione anche la Rai Tv arrivò a Calendasco. 

 

LOOKING AT THE PICTURE OF SAN CORRADO

LOOKING AT THE PICTURE
OF SAN CORRADO IN CHURCH
IN CALENDASCO

by Umberto Battini
     historian of S. Corrado and popularizer

 

San Corrado 16th century painting

Sacred art, and any painting, expresses its own language, which must speak to the beholder.

This also happens with the painting from the early 17th century which is in the church in Calendasco di Piacenza: S. Corrado Confalonieri, a convert and thoughtful about his sins.

The right foot, resting naked on the raw, bare earth: here I was born, physically!
The left foot, resting naked on a bare stone, symbolizes the hermit cave of Noto!
And then the other symbols.
A very beautiful painting, to the eye and to the heart. 

Talk about the Patron. 

 

The Skull represents meditation on death, frustra, called "penance" to punish past sins, the holy rosary, the book of the Gospel.