Lands of the Contrari

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Lands of the Contrari

borgo savignano di Nacchios Brothers

Uguccione Contrari arrived in Vignola for the first time in 1399. A valiant commander of the troops of Ferrara, he succeeded in wresting the territory from the terrible and bloody Giovanni da Barbiano who had temporarily subjugated it, and returned it to the Este family.

Uguccione thus received the Vignola fief from Marquis Nicolò III d'Este in 1401. In 1409, he was also given the fief of Savignano, which included the associated possessions of Montecorone, Monteombraro and Monteorsello, and the territory of Montebonello with Monfestino, along with other possessions near Parma and in the Ferrara area, in the area of Stellata where the Panaro flows into the Po.

Uguccione Contrari was not only a skilful captain, but a powerful man, capable of weaving political alliances and governing with shrewdness. He was succeeded by his sons Nicolò and Ambrogio, who attained the title of Counts in 1453.

The Contrari family became extinct after only four generations: in 1575 Ercole II, the Younger, was assassinated in Ferrara without leaving any male heirs and shortly after receiving the title of Marquis. The family territories were sold again in 1577 to the Boncompagni family, thus ending the saga of one of the richest and most influential families of the Estense court. We can retrace events relating to them in our territory through knowledge of some of the places built and inhabited by the Contrari.

Stages

The Fortress of Vignola
The first nucleus of the building was built at the behest of the Bishop of Modena as an outpost on the Panaro River around the year 1000: it was a structure of which we have the first written testimony in 1178, built in stone, rectangular in shape, with a single watchtower. The Fortress was enlarged with the arrival of Uguccione Contrari from 1402 onwards, reinforcing the military structures (the moat was dug, an entrance corridor and a ravelin were built, which had numerous war traps, patrol trenches were raised, and two more watchtowers were built). Uguccione, however, also wished to make the Fortress a residence commensurate with his social prestige: he therefore decorated the interior of the rooms, but also the exterior of the façades. We find frescoes with a symbolic value extolling the friendship with the Este family and Nicolò III in the rooms on the ground floor, used for receiving guests. The first floor, used as the private flats of the Contrari family, was decorated with scenes that still tell us about the life of the family. Among the rooms on the first floor is the wonderful Contrari Chapel with splendid perfectly preserved late Gothic frescoes by the artist known as Maestro di Vignola. The top floors were occupied by the soldiers who constituted the garrison posted to defend Vignola.
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The Contrari Boncompagni Palace (Barozzi Palace)
Around 1560, Ercole I Contrari, the Elder, following the fashions of his time, decided to start building a new palace that would only have a residential function, thus different from the Fortress. He therefore bought several houses in the area in front of the Fortress and razed them to the ground to obtain a building area. The Palace was probably built in two distinct phases: the main structure was completed in 1566, and the extensions were added later. The building project is today unanimously attributed to Giacomo Barozzi, one of the greatest architects of the 16th century, who was born in Vignola. Barozzi, however, probably did not personally follow the building site, as he had more prestigious commissions at the same time. The Palace, however, was not completed, and in 1577 some parts were still being worked on, as attested by documents. The entrance and main façade of the Palace were located on Piazza Boncompagni, and from the small courtyard there was a wonderful view over the Panaro valley as far as the Apennines. The architecture and especially the astonishing helicoidal staircase represent two of the characteristic features of Barozzi's architecture. The staircase is located inside one of the towers and was used as a link between the floors of the Palace; it is about 12 metres high and built as a self-supporting structure. The entire staircase rests on a column visible from the basement and the steps unload their weight onto it and, from the middle of the staircase, onto the outer wall of the room. The frescoes decorating it were painted in 1880 by the Modenese painters Forti and Forghieri. The service rooms can be visited in the part underground: the kitchen built in the 18th century, the cellars, food storage rooms and two wells. The basement windows were fitted with chutes to facilitate the supply of foodstuffs directly from outside.
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The Village of Savignano
The hill of St. Anastasius, where the village stands, has been inhabited since Roman times, but it is only in a document from 1026 that we find the first mention of the military fortification built on the summit of the hill. The wall had two defensive enclosures with towers and various dwellings; the community buildings were instead located on the slope. During the 13th century, the history of the village was marked by the numerous disputes between the people of Modena and Bologna for dominance over Savignano, one of the border territories. Savignano then entered the orbit of the Este territories in the middle of the 14th century and the command was entrusted to the da Savignano family. In 1403, after the revolt of Giordano da Savignano against the power of Nicolò III d'Este, the territory returned under Este rule and was granted to Uguccione Contrari in 1409. Savignano had an important judicial role: criminal and civil cases were heard there, and it was administered by a council of 16 men that met annually. The peculiarity of the fortification was the presence of three circles of walls with numerous towers: a first circle was located where the entrance to the village is today (and where the entrance tower with signs of the arms of the drawbridge can still be seen), a second was halfway up the slope, at a covered vault, and the third was where the Fortress stood, at the top of the hill. Climbing to the top, one still encounters numerous buildings, most of which have been restored, and the ‘ortazzo’, a large clearing where games are today held between the Savignano contradas battling for ‘La Spada dei Contrari’ (the Contrari Sword), and which rests on an outcrop of tuff rock, deserves particular attention. A little further on is the ‘Casa del Capitano’ (Captain's house), characterised by the presence of traces of frescoes on the façade among which part of the Contrari coat of arms can still be seen. Some towers are still visible on the road that descends from the first access, passing in front of the Oratory dedicated to San Rocco. On the top of the hill is the church dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta, whose current structure was built in the mid-18th century and then restored in 1820 when the last traces of the defensive fortification were removed.
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