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| Varano de' Melegari: the Noble and the
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Rolando
Pallavicino, known as "il Magnifico" (the Magnificent"),
(1394 - 1457), born in 1394, he was to fulfill a primary role
in the complex and contradictory events in Parma in the first
half of the XV century. Together with the Rossi and the Terzi,
Rolando Pallavicino was involved in the conflict between the
factions for control of the strategic passages of the Po, the
use of the via Emilia and the salt works zone situated at Salsomaggiore.
Also famous for having imprisoned and robbed the Pope's envoy,
Branda Castiglioni, in 1410, he was to carry out various military
and diplomatic undertakings Viscount Dukes of Milan, in an era
which saw the maximum territorial extension of the possessions
of the Milanese house.The death of Rolando in 1457 saw the dismemberment
between a number of signories of the Pallavicino estate, and
the submission of the family to the will of the Dukes of Milan.Rolando
is credited with the construction of the castle of Varano: a
strategic fortress built to safeguard the valley of the Ceno,
it constituted one of the best examples of defensive architecture
from the start of the fifteenth century.
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