Ceva
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| Comune di Ceva | |
|---|---|
 Municipal coat of arms |
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| Country |  Italy |
| Region | Piedmont |
| Province | Cuneo (CN) |
| Mayor | Davide Alciati Elected:2004-06-13 |
| Elevation | 385 m |
| Area | 42 km² |
| Population | |
| - Total (as of December 31, 2004) | 5,795 |
| - Density | 136/km² |
| Time zone | CET, UTC+1 |
| Coordinates | |
| Gentilic | Cebani or Cevani |
| Dialing code | 0174 |
| Postal code | 12073 |
| Patron | Madonna del Rosario, Santa Lucia[1] |
| Website: www.comune.ceva.cn.it | |
Ceva, the ancient Ceba is a small Italian town in the province of Cuneo, region of Piedmont, 49 km east of Cuneo. It lies on the right bank of the Tanaro on a wedge of land between that river and the Cevetta stream.
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[edit] History
In the pre-Roman period the territory around Ceva was inhabited by the branch of the mountain Ligures known as Epanterii.
The upper Val Tanaro was Romanized in the second century BCE and it is known that the area was organized around a municipium. However, it is not certain that this was Ceba: Mombasiglio is also regarded as a candidate. In the first century CE Columella referred to a particular breed of cattle raised here, and Pliny the Elder praised its sheep’s milk cheese in his Natural History. The town is on the site of the old Roman road from Augusta Taurinorum via Pollentia to the coast and it is probable that there was a market here from which the cheese produced in the region was exported with Rome via the Ligurian ports of Vada Sabatia (the modern Vado Ligure) and/or Albingaunum (Albenga).
In the Middle Ages it was a strong fortress defending the confines of Piedmont towards Liguria, but the fortifications on the rock above the town were demolished in 1800 by the French, to whom it had been ceded in 1796.
[edit] Landmarks
The sixteenth-century Castello of the Marchesi Pallavicino stands in an area of green parkland between the Tanaro and the Cevetta and comprises two small palaces: the original, red palazzina rossa and the later, white palazzina bianca.
[edit] Notes
[edit] Further reading
- (Italian) Ceva, is a site on the monuments and history of the town, well illustrated with images from various periods.
- Pliny on the cheese of Ceba in Book 11 of the Natural History:
- (English) at Perseus
- (Latin) at LacusCurtius (Search for ‘Cebanum’)
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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