Story
From 1492 to 1494 two important personages were working in Vigevano: Donato Bramante and Leonardo da Vinci. The former is said to have planned the "Loggia delle Dame" , the "Falconry" and the Tower, while Leonardo left lots of notes referring to Vigevano and the Sforzesca. The Moro was defeated by the French at Novara; he was captured, imprisoned and taken to France where he died in 1508.With his death Vigevano's golden period of urbanistic renewal was over. Later on Vigevano was ruled by the French and became a feud to the Maresciallo of France Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, remembered for the famous tapestry factory still now well known for its production (see the tapestries in the Sforzas' Castle in Milan). Other invasions from abroad, wars and plagues followed. When Francesco II Sforza, the Moro's son who had been born in Vigevano, came to the throne of Milan on the 16th of March 1530, at his request Pope Clemente VII signed the bull by which Vigevano was made a town and seat of a Diocese. The "Contado Vigevanasco" was instituted in 1532. When Francesco II died prematurely on the September 1st, 1535, the flowering of the commercial and artistic life of the new-born town was abruptly interrupted. When Vigevano fell under the Spanish dominion of Emperor Charles V, a long series of misfortunes struck the town: a terrible famine in 1628/29, a dreadful plague in 1630 and two frightful sieges to the New fortress, one in 1645 by the French and the other in 1646 by the Spaniards, which made the town "like a sad desert" When, at the beginning of XVIII century the Spaniards withdrew, Vigevano economic conditions greatly improved and in 1750 the town had already 144 workrooms for silk manufacturing employing about 1600 people. On August 29th, 1789 Vigevano was recognized by the State of Sardinia as the capital town of the "Provincia Vigevanasca". This province was however suppressed in 1818 during the "restauration" after the short government of Napoleon. On August 10th, 1848, King Carlo Alberto signed the Salasco Armistice in the Bishop's palace putting an end to the first period of the first independence war. On March 21st, 1849,when the war started again, the Piedmont soldiers won a famous battle against the Austrians at the Sforzesca. On August 24th, 1854, the railway Vigevano-Mortara was opened and in 1870 when the brick bridge over the Ticino river was built it was prolonged as far as Milan. Vigevano has always been a very industrious town: already in the 14th and 15th centuries wollen clothes were manufactured here, and in the 17th century silk was produced. After a short period in the 19th century when in Vigevano several hat factories were working, the first Italian shoefactory (Luigi Bocca) appeared in the town in 1866. In about forty years there were as many as 36 other shoefactories employing about 10 thousand workers (1470 working inside the factories and 8000 at home). In 1929 the town set a new record with the manufacturing of shoes with rubber soles by the shoefactory "Smart" owned by Rossanigo Brothers. The shoe industry spread widely and in 1937 in Vigevano there were 873 factories with about 13.000 employees. Together with the shoe factories about the end of 1800 a consistent textile industry (cotton and silk) flourished employing thousands of workers in several factories. During the Second World War, in September 1943 Vigevano was occupied by German troops and many patriots died. Before the end of the war in 1945, other people died because of many air raids. In the last fifty years after the war Vigevano saw first an ecomomic boom and then the decline of the shoe factory. These factories, which in 1965 were as many as 900 with about 20 thousand employees, started lessening down since 1970 and are still diminishing. The crisis of the sector was partially compensated by the development of the mechanical industry which conquered the production world record in shoe machinery manufacturing. However the number of workers has dropped and with this also the number of inhabitants dropped from 69 thousand in 1970 to 60 thousand in 1995.

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