Baceno, municipality of the Antigorio Valley, has an area of 6872 hectares and is located 655 meters above sea level.
The history of Baceno has ancient roots: the name of the capital of the Antigorio Valley appears for the first time in a document of 918, but the discovery, in 1958, of a tomb dating back to the second century AD, testifies to its origins even further away.
In the Middle Ages Baceno played an important role for the Alta Val d’Ossola, thanks to its strategic position at the confluence of three valleys, Devero Antigorio and Formazza.
From 1200 there were alternating events, which initially saw the local families of De Rodis and De Baceno as protagonists.
In 1215 the Emperor Otto IV invested the De Rodia family of the Antigorius Valley whose possessions were then succeeded to the De Bacenos.
In 1381 the passage of Baceno and the whole Val d’Ossola took place under the domination of the Visconti, in 1450 the Sforza took over, while in 1595 the territory was given as a fief to the Borromeo. In 1647 Baceno and all the other centers of the Antigorius Valley were exempted from enfeudation.
The antiquity of the place is attested by the discovery, in 1958, of a tomb that can be assigned to the second century AD. Baceno, whose name appears for the first time in a document of 918, in the Middle Ages follows the events of the upper Ossola and had considerable importance for its position at the confluence of three valleys.
Artistic notes:
On the way to Goglio, in the locality "al Passo", there is a barrier of Sforza valley (last decade of the century. XV) with tower to knight of the road.
The parish church of Baceno, dedicated to S. Gaudenzio is a Romanesque - Gothic construction: begun in the twelfth century. it was enlarged to three naves in the fourteenth century and finally brought to five in the first half of the 500, when it was also flanked by a bell tower (1523).
Built in square blocks of stone, the church has a gabled facade adorned with a median portal (1505), decorated with hanging arches and a rose window and preserves remarkable specimens of sixteenth-century art: Frescoes of A. Zanetti (1549), painted stained glass, a carved wooden encounter from the Swiss school. The parish of Croveo has a wooden door carved in the sec. XVII.
Comments