Casatisma has 895 inhabitants in the plain of the Oltrepò Pavese, on the right bank of the Coppa stream. Its old name was Ca de' Tisma, from the Pavia family of the de Tisma: in a tax register of the comune of Pavia of 1256 the place is listed as the tower of Giacomo de Tisma. From 1504 the village belonged to the Mezzabarba, who had a large palace here and owned almost all the land of the comune: Casatisma was in practice one enormous farm of theirs, and that is why the village and the fields around it still have that very orderly shape.
The best known of the Mezzabarba is Carlo Ambrogio, born in 1685. The pope sent him to China as his legate to settle the question of the Chinese rites: he reached Peking in December 1720 and was received several times by the emperor Kangxi, who at one point seemed to grant him what he was asking. Nothing came of it, and he sailed back to Europe carrying with him the body of the legate who had preceded him, dead at Macao years before. Home again he was bishop of Lodi, and in 1732 he rebuilt the family palace in Pavia: that palace is today the city hall. In the arms of Casatisma there are still the Mezzabarba lilies and the hat that recalls him.
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Near Casatisma
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Casatisma, but an easy day trip away.