“To Gagliaudo Aulari, who taught us how a conflict can be resolved without killing any human being. If the world has forgotten him, let us remember him”.
Umberto Eco's phrase can be found on the back of a statue in piazza Giovanni XXIII di Alessandria, not far from thecathedral.
The sculpture represents Gagliaudo, the cunning farmer and shepherd credited with saving Alessandria from the siege of Frederick Barbarossa in 1175.
In fact, a legend tells that, with the city now exhausted by the siege of Frederick Barbarossa's troops and almost ready to surrender, Gagliaudo emerged from the walls with his cow after stuffing it with the remaining grain. Stopped by soldiers just outside the walls, Gagliaudo was questioned by the emperor, who was amazed that the animal's stomach-as the soldiers had just told him-was full of grain. And the explanation that Gagliaudo gave, lying, was that the fellow citizens were not worried about the siege, but that they could hold out much longer. His cunning had the result of making the attackers beat a retreat.
Umberto Eco was inspired by the figure of Gagliaudo when he wrote the well-known historical novel "Baudolino," which tells the vicissitudes of a young boy who lives in the countryside where Alessandria will rise and who in 1154 was adopted by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.
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