San Sebastiano Curone

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town hall view
piazza Roma 7

phone number
+39 0131 786205

e-mail
sansebastianonline@libero.it

San Sebastiano Curone is a village located about 110 km southeast of Turin and about 40 km southeast of Alessandria, at the confluence of the Curone and Museglia streams. It borders the following municipalities: Brignano-Frascata, Dernice, Gremiasco, and Montacuto.
It is a typical Ligurian style village, which has remained the same over the centuries. Agricultural centre and summer resort as well, San Sebastiano is seat of the Mountain Community of the Curone, Grue and Ossona valleys.
The road of the Imperial fiefs linked Genoa to Piacenza, passing through many villages and San Sebastiano was a valuable trade stopover. In an old manuscript it appeared as a cell, small home for monks, depending on the authority of the monastery of Bobbio.
In the past San Sebastiano was under the dominations of the Malaspina family and the Fieschi family from Genoa. In the 16th century, under the Doria, it became an important weekly market, selling salt, fish and cereals.
From 1779 onwards San Sebastiano was ruled by the French.
It is the birthplace of Felice Giani, a neo-classicist painter.

main sights
- the church of SS. Trinità from the mid- 1700s, with a stone portal, frescoes and statues by the 17th and 18th Genoese school. The painting depicting the Holy Trinity is attributed to the illustrious painter Felice Giani.
- the church of Madonna dell’Assunta (Oratory of our lady of the Assumption), restructured in 1671, at the time of Doria family, whose ‘De Ferrari Palace’ was next to the oratory.
- Roma Square with Mazza Galanti Palace with its liberty-style characteristic facade; Pollini Palace, with an important floreal ledge and Signoris Palace in an elegant and solemn style.
- Visconteo Castle (private house); it was site of a military garrison to supervise the traffic of caravans on the border with the Republic of Genoa.

notable people
- Felice Giani: (17 December 1758 – 10 January 1823): born in San Sebastiano he moved to Pavia and then to Bologna (1778), where he entered the studio of Gaetano and Ubaldo Gandolfi. He soon moved to Rome and found work in the decoration of the Palazzo Altieri. Between 1780 and 1786, he worked in various studios in Rome, then returned to Faenza, where he worked with the painter S. Barozzi and with Giovanni Battista Ballanti. In Faenza he was involved in a prolific series of projects including the fresco decoration of the Laderchi, Naldi and Milzetti Palaces. The latter is considered his masterpiece. In Bologna, he decorated the Palazzi Aldini, Marescalchi, Lambertini Ranuzzi, and Baciocchi.
In Rome, he worked in the palace of the Embassy of Spain, Palazzo Quirinale, and he also did work in Forlì, Ferrara, Ravenna, and Venice. He befriended the Napoleonic French leaders, and travelled to Paris where he painted frescos in the villa of the Secretary of State of the Kingdom of Italy. In 1811 he joined the Accademia di San Luca and in 1819, the Congregation of the Virtuosi of the Pantheon. He died after falling from his horse in Rome in 1823, and he is buried in the church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte.
- Lorenzo Bourges: local painter. He decorated several buildings, among which the beautiful palaces in the main square of San Sebastiano, some palaces and villas in Genoa and in the Ligurian Riviera along with a few chapels in the Tortona Church of Santa Maria Canale.
- Guglielmo Elford Leach: (2 February 1790 – 26 August 1836) was an English zoologist and marine biologist. In 1821 he suffered a nervous breakdown due to overwork and resigned from the museum he worked at in March 1822. His elder sister took him to continental Europe to convalesce, and they travelled through France, Italy and Greece. He died of cholera in San Sebastiano and was buried here.

> hamlets: Marguata, Cascine, Sant’Antonio, Telecco.
> patronal day: San Sebastiano
> inhabitants denomination: sansebastianesi
> area: sq km 3.95

n. inhabitants. 596

altitude m: 342

distance from: Alessandria km. 45