In 1237 the emperor Frederick II defeated the Lombard League at Cortenuova, and one of those who helped him was the Bergamo garrison of Cividate: it was they who signalled to him with a smoke column that the League's army was passing. The village stands on a natural terrace overlooking the valley of the Oglio, and its old centre keeps the orthogonal layout typical of Roman settlements; the name comes from the Latin civitas, and some studies identify it with the Civitas Leuceris that appears on the Tabula Peutingeriana.
Standing on the border meant trade and smuggling, and out of that traffic grew the fair of Saint Nicholas, held every year from the sixth to the thirteenth of December, which lasted from the sixteenth century to the first half of the nineteenth. In the running of the comune, however, until 1796 only the old original families could take part: it was the French who opened it to families from elsewhere as well. The railway station, opened in the nineteenth century, bore the name of the neighbouring village, Calcio, until 2021.
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📅 Every year, on 6 December
Cividate al Piano celebrates Saint Nicholas of Bari on 6 December. From the sixteenth century to the first half of the nineteenth, the important Fiera di San Nicolò was held from 6 to 13 December.
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