The patron saint of Vigevano is Saint Ambrose, celebrated on the Monday after the second Sunday of October in the cathedral dedicated to him, on Piazza Ducale; the secondary patron is the Blessed Matteo Carreri.
Between the 14th and 15th centuries the town was a fief first of the Della Torre family, then of the Visconti, and finally, between 1450 and 1535, of the Sforza. When Francesco Sforza tried to seize power, Vigevano rebelled: in April 1449 its citizens expelled the podestà and the garrison commander, proclaiming themselves a free commune allied with Milan. Sforza's troops besieged the city for about twenty days, launching numerous assaults against the Lomellini holed up within the castle walls, with a leading role played by the town's heroine Camilla Rota. Having finally seized power, Francesco Sforza planned to establish a great agricultural estate in Vigevano, a project later hindered by the difficult state of the ducal finances.
