The history of Garbagna Novarese closely follows the major events of the nearby Novara, being part of its countryside (contado).
It appeared in documents by the 9th century. During the Middle ages it was a fief of powerful families from Novara and Lombardy, then it became an autonomous comune during the Modern age.
Ancient times
The authors who have dealt with the antiquity of the Garbagna area, including Polybius, describe an immense and thick wooded area, a characteristic feature of the entire Novara plain before the advent of the rice fields. The forest extended between the present-day territories of Garbagna, Nibbiola and Vespolate, following the course of the Arbogna stream, on anything but flat terrain, interspersed with meadows, moors, ponds and numerous watercourses. Specifically, the presence of a Laguzzolum (pond) is mentioned. The landscape was also characterized by vast gravel fields and marshes, created by the frequent flooding of the watercourses, especially during snowmelt.
Pre-Roman era
The sources describing the settlements of pre-Roman peoples in the Novara area do not provide sufficient detail to determine with certainty which people the Garbagna territory belonged to. Therefore, the following discussion discusses the two peoples who historically lived in the Lower Novara area, and who therefore most likely inhabited Garbagna: Laevi e Vertamocorii.
The first inhabitants of the area were a northern offshoot of the Laevi, a Ligurian population settled mainly in the Pavia area and part of the Golasecca culture. Laevi led a purely Neolithic life: Their activities were hunting, fishing, and growing cereals, therefore their diet was based on meat (a little), fish, soups, broths, and flatbreads. They lived scattered in small clusters of houses, each corresponding to a family group. They preferred a particularly hard and frugal lifestyle, giving maximum importance to their independence. They were settled on the banks of the Arbogna stream, near the current cemetery and chiesa di San Michele.
Although there is no precise temporal location of the presence of the Laevi in the territory of Garbagna, it is known for certain that the Ligurians inhabited the Piedmont area in the 7th century BC.
The suffix -asco in the name of the disappeared locality of Camarasco, still mentioned in documents dating back to the 14th century, reveals the presence of this population of Ligurian origin in the territory of Garbagna.
After several centuries of sporadic Celtic infiltrations, in the 4th century BC there was a massive migration of these peoples across the Alps towards the entire Po Valley, beginning a period of coexistence and integration with the local populations which led to the introduction of the La Tène culture to the detriment of the Golasecca culture. Since the new arrivals were more advanced both politically and economically, the habits and customs of the latter eventually prevailed, slowly leading to the Celticization of Ligurian populations.
Specifically, the Vertamocorii tribe settled in the Novara area, and founded the nearby city of Novara (according to Pliny the Elder). Their presence has several confirmations: the discovery of numerous funerary urns and a spindle whorl of proven pre-Roman origin, although not officially reported (see box A blow to the past); several references in various documents (especially the Consignationes of 1347) to the presence of a nemus in the centre of the village, near the current chiesa di San Michele: the nemus was a sacred wood dedicated to the cult of the Sun, a typical element of the Celtic religion.
The arrival of these peoples in the Po Valley also brought the Levi into the sphere of influence of the Insubres, the strongest Celtic tribe settled in Mediolanum, which exercised a great influence on the neighboring populations. The relations with the Insubres were however called into question during the various actions undertaken by the Romans in Cisalpine Gaul in the 3rd century BC. As a consequence, the territory of the Levi and the neighboring Libui (in the Vercelli area) was violently involved during the Roman-Gallic Wars of 196 BC, when groups of Boii crossed the Po and carried out heavy raids against their former allies.
It is also known that these people produced beer and that trade with the Etruscans introduced viticulture.
Roman era
After the defeat of the Celts at Mediolanum in 222 BC, in 220 BC the Romans turned west and occupied the Novara area, but were unable to subjugate it. Agreements were therefore stipulated that guaranteed the locals a certain autonomy, both culturally and legally (foedera). Romanization was further delayed by the arrival of Hannibal during the Second Punic War (219-202 BC), during which Scipio Africanus himself was defeated near the Ticino with the support of the Po Valley peoples allied to the Carthaginian. The conquest of the Novarese continued until 196 BC, at the time of the definitive subjugation of the Celts Insubres, and it became part of the province of Cisalpine Gaul during its establishment, between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.
In 89 BC, at the end of the Gallic Wars, the Lex Pompeia de Transpadanis was enacted, which granted Latin law (ius Latii, an intermediate level between full Roman citizenship and the status of non-citizen) to all the communities north of the Po that remained loyal to Rome. In this way, Rome concretely consolidated its presence in the piedmont region.
In 49 BC Gaius Julius Caesar was busy conquering Transalpine Gaul and aimed to facilitate the transit of troops in the Po Valley. He therefore had the Lex Roscia approved, which abolished the province of Cisalpine Gaul, guaranteed Roman citizenship and established the municipii, including that of Novara: Garbagna entered fully into Roman Italy, in the role of vicus, part of the pagus (country district) dependent on the urbs Novaria.
Following the aims of Gaius Julius Caesar, the establishment of the municipium of Novara started the construction of the great roads to connect the Novarese to the rest of the empire. The territory of Garbagna was crossed from north to south by the road that locally connected Novara to Mortara and passed to the west of the village (sometimes identified as via Settimia) crossing the Arbogna torrent not far from chiesa di San Michele, continuing then north towards the Moncucco farmstead. Remains of this paved road (solarium) are still visible in Olengo. The route of this via publica (so named in a document from 881) is only partially identifiable today: it followed the stretches of elevated land that flanked the Arbogna valley, according to the logic of the ridge routes: a road on the ridge is more easily usable, as it is not subject to flooding from watercourses, unlike the valley floor.
Despite its small size, Garbagna certainly had a significant defensive function, given that near the current chiesa di San Michele, on a small hill surrounded on three sides by the Arbogna stream, there stood a castellum, that is, a small fortified camp: the elevated position and the protection offered by the watercourse made it a strategic point for monitoring the surrounding areas. Unfortunately, the Roman military architecture, preferring the use of wood as a building material, has not allowed its conservation.
After the Roman conquest of the Piedmontese area, in 7 BC Augustus ordered the radical reorganization of the entire Italian territory to favor the centralization of power: the eleven Augustan regions were established. In the territory of the former province of Cisalpine Gaul the municipia (administered relatively independently) were abolished and the Novarese became part of the Regio XI Transpadana, which included all the territories north of the Po up to the Oglio river and was headed by Mediolanum.
In 313, Emperor Constantine promulgated the Edict of Milan, which granted freedom of worship throughout the empire. This marked the beginning of the widespread spread of Christianity in Piedmont. Initially, the Novara Christian community depended on the episcopal seat of Vercelli, as Novara did not yet have one. According to tradition, the diocese of Novara was established in 398, with Bishop Gaudentius at its head, who personally took care of the evangelization of the Lower Novara area in the years between the 4th and 5th centuries.
Every day life
The works of Polybius and Pliny the Elder provide some insight into life at the time. Agriculture was mainly based on foxtail millet and proso millet, used as a base for various soup-like dishes with vegetables, and the Novara farmers paid particular attention to growing grapes, cereals, and turnips. The vine was entwined with the trunks of poplar trees and produced a rather tart wine. Like the Celtic populations of previous centuries, the Romans shaped the land to favor agriculture, draining the marshes and clearing the moors. In the immense surrounding woodland, hunting was practiced for wild boar, roe deer, wild rabbits, and numerous birds, such as quail and pheasant. At the same time, the woods were home to wolves, bears, and foxes, from which it was sometimes necessary to defend oneself with weapons. Finally, in the numerous waterways, fishing was practiced for various species of fish, such as trout, pike, carp, bleak and eels.
Another precious resource was the oak, which grew spontaneously in vast forests near watercourses: its acorns were the favourite food of the wild boars, which in turn were hunted for their meat, very appreciated and sought after. At the same time, acorns were the basis of the breeding of pigs, among the fattest and most appreciated of the Italian peninsula.
As in the rest of the Novara countryside, agriculture in the Garbagna area was conducted in domus rusticanae, small family-run farms very similar to today's farmhouses, built of wood and clay and featuring an internal courtyard and well. The agricultural activities of the large urban landowners, on the other hand, took place in villae rusticae, large buildings with specific areas dedicated to the residential use of the owner (pars urbana), the workers (tuguria), and purely agricultural activities.
Archaeological finds
In 1675 the Roman tomb of Atilia Sabina, estimated to be of late imperial age, was found in an unspecified location in the Novara area and sent to Garbagna, in the properties of the Caroelli family.
Further confirmation of the Roman presence in Garbagna is given by the discovery of a large serizzo stone sarcophagus (1.17m x 2.28m) near the cemetery, believed to be from the late imperial period, and of a smaller one (0.40m x 1.25m) in the Mariina farmstead area. In 1944 the large sarcophagus was engraved and placed over the tomb of Alessandro Viglio, member and president of the Società Storica Novarese, in Novara Cemetery.
Barbarian invasions
In the 5th century, the Novara area was invaded rapidly by various peoples:
in 402 the Visigoths of Alaric; in 405 a band of barbarians of different lineage, survivors of Alaric's army, led Radagaisus; in 410 again the Visigoths of Alaric; in 452 the Huns of Attila; in the years following the conquest of Milan in 489, the Goths of Theodoric, who brought the Novarese into the Ostrogothic Kingdom.
During the Gothic War (535-554), ordered by the Eastern Emperor Justinian to wrest Italy from the Goths, the Novara area was reconquered by the Byzantine troops of Mundila in 538, supported by Isaurian and Thracian contingents. Soon, however, the Goths of Vitiges, with the support of their Burgundian allies, counterattacked. Famine and epidemics followed. Dorino Tuniz suggests the words of Procopius of Caesarea to get an idea of the desperation of the populations involved, including certainly those of the Novara countryside: