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Cremona
Birthplace of Agostino Aglio
In November 2007, we stopped in Cremona, in Northern
Italy on our way between Venice and Florence. This was in part to retrace
the steps of Lionel and Cecily Dibdin
in 1933 and in part to explore the
birthplace of Agostino Aglio and find out what we could about his
life. Sadly they never returned.
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We had a friendly reception in the museum and it was stated
that there was a road named after Aglio, but were exactly to find it
was unknown. |
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After
a long search, early in the morning, through many cafes and breadshops
it was suggested that the road was somewhere near the cemetery and so on
arriving there while there was a large parade outside the main entrance. The
police were helpful and somebody instructed us to via Agostino Aglio.
It has been uncanny that one should be
searching for information about an ancestor on what we call All Souls Day
but what the Italians call Festivita dei Defuncta, a day on which they
remember there relatives.
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The Cemetery in Cremona |
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The offices of the cemetery were open and office staff
busily helping people find graves and information about their
relatives. The response to a request regarding Aglio was for someone
to have faxed for me from the archive office, a page giving, in Italian, a
short biography from a book ABECEDARIO BIOGRAFICO DEI PITTORI
.....by Giuseppe Grasselli (Alphabetic Biography of
Painters, Sculptors and Architects from Cremona 1827 by Giuseppe Grasselli)
This encouraged further research and much of
the information about Agostino Aglio and his family has been found amongst
readily available archives.
The town is relatively understated compared with the
likes of Verona, Venice and Florence but for this reason it seemed a
very pleasant stopping place with more to it than meets the eye at
first sight. The centre of the town has a magnificent Duomo,
overlooking a spacious square, a museum and a very well organized
cemetery.
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Around the Central Market Place |
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The town takes a pride in it history
and relises the fact that Stradivari the famous violin maker came
from the the town.
The Aforementioned book by Grasselli is about 300 pages long and
contains hundreds of names.
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