The first inhabitants here built a village of pile dwellings protected by ditches, and after the founding of Piacenza and Cremona in 218 before Christ the area became the border between the Roman republic and the lands of the Gauls. The defensive vocation lasted a long time: from 1153 the Malaspina raised in the middle of the settlement the castle that today houses the municipal offices, with its four corner towers, two round and two square. In the countryside around stand Altoé, Castellaro, Gariga and San Polo, this last turned into a prison by the Austrians in 1746.
The most instructive episode, though, is administrative. In 1821 the northern part of the municipality, with San Polo, Turro and a slice of the main village, was detached and attached to neighbouring San Lazzaro Alberoni. The loss put Podenzano in such financial difficulty that in 1831 it was the administrators themselves who proposed abolishing the municipality and annexing what was left to Gossolengo. The proposal came to nothing, and on the thirteenth of June 1857 the territories came back. Near the Nure, meanwhile, a wood of sixteen hectares survives, the remnant of a forest planted in 1893 for the works on the Piacenza aqueduct.
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📅 Every year, on 31 January; in summer the Piacenza Tomato Fair, Tomato World
Podenzano celebrates Saint John Bosco on 31 January, in the church dedicated to him together with Saint Germanus. The importance of tomato growing for the Podenzano area is shown by the annual summer Piacenza Tomato Fair - Tomato World.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Podenzano, but an easy day trip away.
