{"id":191,"date":"2013-09-27T08:00:12","date_gmt":"2013-09-27T06:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valdesina.it\/?p=191"},"modified":"2015-04-20T12:49:52","modified_gmt":"2015-04-20T10:49:52","slug":"gianavella-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valdesina.it\/en\/2013\/09\/27\/gianavella-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Gianavella – Luserna San Giovanni"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi guys!
\nToday we are in a place once called \u201cLiorato\u201d which is very famous thanks to a legendary Waldensian<\/span> <\/a>hero: the person we\u2019re going to talk about today is Giosu\u00e8 Gianavello.<\/p>\n

\"Here<\/a>
Here I am at the Gianavella<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Giosu\u00e8 Gianavello, whose real name was Giosu\u00e8 Gignous, was born in 1617 into a Waldensian family that moved to Luserna from Bobbio Pellice. The branch of the Gignous family Giosu\u00e8 came from was called \u201cJanavel\u201d or \u201cGianavello\u201d, from the Occitan word \u201cgiavana\u201d, which means \u201cthick hair\u201d, and by which the owl is meant.
\nGios\u00f9\u00e8 is known by the nickname \u201cthe Lion of Ror\u00e0\u201d (Ror\u00e0<\/span> <\/a>is a small mountain village in Pellice Valley), thanks to the courage he showed in challenging Savoy troops in the years of religious persecutions.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The hole dug by Giosu\u00e8 Gianavello<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1600 Savoy ruled in Piedmont; they were Catholic, and in 1655 Duke Carlo Emanuele II started a military action to force Waldensians from the Valleys to change their religion.
\nThe ones who would not agree were imprisoned or sentenced to death.
\nIn the period known as \u201cPiedmontese Easters\u201d (April, 24th to 27th) Savoy troops arrived unexpectedly in the Valley, stealing, destroying everything and killing people.
\nIn seeing this, the 38-year-old farmer Giosu\u00e8 Gianavello, who used to live at the Liorato and who had no education nor military training, decided to take position against the enemies and, supported by few people at his side, he decided to challenge the Duke\u2019s troops, helped by his knowledge of the mountain and of the woods around.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Liorato, fields belonged to Gianavello<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Inside the house (today called \u201cGianavella\u201d) a hole in the wall was made; it is said that Gios\u00f9\u00e8 himself made this hole, so that he could hide away from the enemies.
\nDue to the fact that he challenged the Duke\u2019s power, Giosu\u00e8 was banned, considered an outlaw and sentenced to death; that\u2019s why still nowadays plots of land (which were, in part, dowry of Giosu\u00e8\u2019s wife Caterina) surrounding the Liorato house where Giosu\u00e8 and his mates were hiding are called \u201cthe Bandits\u2019 Valley<\/span><\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The hideaway dug at Gianavella<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1664, finally, on request of Waldensians who wished to go back to their normal life, peace Conferences were agreed and conflicts came to an ed.
\nUnfortuntely Giosu\u00e8 Gianavello did not get rid of the accuse of being an outlaw, and he was sentenced to exile: on February 19th, 1664, he and his mates left forever the Valleys and moved to Geneva (Switzerland).
\nHe died for his old age on March, 5th, 1690, after writing the \u201cInstructions\u201d used by Waldensian exiles (that he hosted in Switzerland) to return to the Valleys years later<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The inside of the Giosu\u00e8 Gianavello\u2019s house<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are no pictures of him; we just have a deposition issued to the police by a man who saw him on August 16th, 1663: \u201cGianavello is a men of medium height, he is large rather than small, he has short curly hair with a black beard, and he is healthy. Everyone called him Captain Gianavello, and they were all very kind to him\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

How to get here:<\/strong>
\nreach the center of Luserna San Giovanni, in Pellice Valley. Starting from here, follow the traffic signs to Ror\u00e0 and go straight on, passing beyond the Pellice stream and the hamlet of Luserna Alta. Immediately after, on your right, you’ll find a yellow sign showing the way yo the Gianavella: well, follow the sign and get to it.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi guys! Today we are in a place once called \u201cLiorato\u201d which is very famous thanks to a legendary Waldensian hero: the person we\u2019re going to talk about today is Giosu\u00e8 Gianavello. Giosu\u00e8 Gianavello, whose real name was Giosu\u00e8 Gignous, was born in 1617 into a Waldensian family that moved to Luserna from Bobbio Pellice. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[42,101,41,104,248,69,251,68,13],"tema":[],"area":[],"class_list":["post-191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senza-categoria-en","tag-gianavello-en","tag-luserna-san-giovanni-en","tag-rora-en","tag-seventheenth-century","tag-storia-valdese-en","tag-val-pellice-en","tag-valdesi-en","tag-waldensian-history","tag-waldensians"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/valdesina.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/cover_gianavella.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valdesina.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valdesina.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valdesina.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valdesina.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valdesina.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/valdesina.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1426,"href":"https:\/\/valdesina.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions\/1426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valdesina.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valdesina.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valdesina.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valdesina.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191"},{"taxonomy":"tema","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valdesina.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tema?post=191"},{"taxonomy":"area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valdesina.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/area?post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}