Home | Valente and DiRenzo Family History - From Our Correspondent in Geneva
The Municipio of Gambatesa
This is the Casa comunale ("Town Hall" or "Municipal Building" or "Office of Civil Registration") of Gambatesa's civil registers.
The photograph above shows the Municipio, or, Casa comunale, of Gambatesa, as approached along the Via Municipio, the road that runs for one block from Largo [della] Fontana to the porta principale ("main door") of the Municipio. The photograph below shows the actual approach. [Large street map of the town center of Gambatesa, from 1927 and 1939]
The main door of the Municipio was where pubblicazioni ("marriage banns") where posted for all to see. And it was inside the Municipio, open to the public, where civil marriage ceremonies (with rare exception) were performed.
All births and deaths were also recorded at the Municipio, although around 1910 parents seem no longer to have been required to bring their newborn children to the hall. In the 1800s, even during the coldest and hottest months of the year, babies were brought, usually on the day of their birth, to the hall to be presented to an official of the civil register, who was required by law to visually verify whether the baby was a girl or boy.
The Municipio is also the present location of Gambatesa's police station, which is a room inside the Municipio which is staffed by two police officers.
Over the door of the Municipio there is a large plaque with the names of all the soldiers from Gambatesa who died in World War One. There are a lot of names.
Via Municipio goes off to the viewer's right at 45° and becomes Rampa Municipio. After two short blocks it runs into Via San Nicola, which lies perpendicular to the part of the Via Municipio that is visible in this photograph.
Photograph by Angelo Abiuso (Geneva), August 2001,
at 2:05 PM (15:05 hrs UTC).
