The year 2024 sees the arrival of a new member of the European Federation of Napoleonic Cities.
The new year begins with the town of Limbiate, in Italy, joining the European Federation of Napoleonic Cities.
Napoleon's stay in Limbiate was brief but decisive for his public and private history. The young general Napoleon Bonaparte chose the Villa Pusterla-Crivelli in Limbiate as his headquarters between May and November 1797. It was here that the Cisalpine Republic was established, proclaimed on 29 June 1797, and that he worked on drafting the Treaty of Campoformio with Austria, signed on 17 October 1797.
Napoleon had a private history with Limbiate, as the future emperor moved his entire family there: his mother Letizia Ramolino, his brothers Giuseppe and Luigi, a captain in the Hussars, and his three sisters Carlotta, Elisa and Paolina. On 14 June 1797, a double wedding was celebrated at night in the oratory of San Francesco: that of Pauline Bonaparte to General Charles Emmanuel Leclerc, and the marriage between Elisa and Felice Baciocchi, which had been celebrated civilly in France, was officialised according to the Catholic rite. Historians claim that this double marriage caused more than a few headaches for the parish priest of Bovisio Masciago, Giuseppe Maria Brioschi, who needed dispensations from the Archbishop of Milan to celebrate it in a private oratory. It was Napoleon who solved the problem by sending half a cavalry squadron to the archbishop's palace, which, having obtained what was requested, returned to Limbiate, where the wedding was celebrated at 3 a.m. that night.
More information: https://comune.limbiate.mb.it/
