Zelo Buon Persico: the lake and the dragon
A lake and the dragon
Once, until around the year 1100, in the place of Zelo Buon Persico (Italy) there was a lake. It was called lake Gerundo (or Gerendo, or even Geroso). More precisely, Lake Gerundo was located in the area between the current course of the Adda river and the escarpment that delimits the Cremasco area, that is, within an ideal intermediate line between the current Adda and the Serio.
Its basin consisted of a depression in the Po alluvial plain, where the waters of the Adda, Oglio and resurgences could freely flow. It appeared as a large extension of marshes and marshes, caused by the gradual shift of the Adda from east to west (up to today's position) and more or less wide depending on the floods of the river.
In addition to swamps, marshes and ponds there must also have been deep bodies of water, so much so that it is assumed the existence, along its coasts, of residential villas and ports. In the area of Villa Pompeiana, the southernmost hamlet of Zelo Buon Persico - some researches believe there was a villa and even a river port built by the Roman patrician Gneo Pompeo Strabone (150-80 BC), in the years around 120 BC.
Father of Pompeo Magno, Julius Caesar's fiercest rival, Pompeo Strabone was a very important person for what is currently the Lodi area. In honor of him, after the Romans conquered Cisalpine Gaul, the largest inhabited center in the region southeast of Mediolanum (Milan) was renamed as Laus Pompeia (today it is called Lodi Vecchio). The main communication route was the so-called via regia, which led from Milan to Lodi passing through Paullo, Muzzano and Galgagnano.
Living near Lake Gerundo did not have to be very comfortable and safe before the great reclamation work begun by the Cistercian and Benedictine monks, continued in 1220 with the creation of the Muzza canal. According to a legend of the early Middle Ages, the dragon Tarantasio lived in Lake Gerundo, a real terror for the inhabitants of the place. A fabulous monster in which the popular imagination probably wanted to personify the mephitic exhalations of those marshy and malarial areas. The dragon Tarantasio, in modern times, has inspired the creators of the Agip logo, who have transfigured it, updating it, into the six-legged dog that spits fire from its mouth.
In the Mortone, a marshy area of considerable naturalistic value, immediately after the hamlet of Mignete near the hamlet of Villa Pompeiana, a monossil dugout was found in 1977, that is a very primitive boat, consisting of a single, enormous trunk of specially dug tree. Subjected to radiocarbon analysis, the pirogue dates back to the end of the fifth century AD, and more precisely around 490.
The first habitants
After the conquest of Cisalpine Gaul, completed in 222 BC, the Romans dedicated themselves with commitment to the cultivation of the new territories acquired. In the region of the current Paullese various gentes settled, that is different families: Valeria, Mutia, Marcia, Balbia, Fabia and Pompeia, whose main exponent was Gneo Pompeo Strabone. The possessions of these families took the name of the owner gentes: thus, among other things, the agri Mutianum (today Muzzano), Marcianum (Marzano), Balbianum (Balbiano) and Villa Pompeiana were born.
According to tradition, it was a member of the Mutia gens who conceived and had the so-called Aqua Mutiana excavated, one of the first artificial canals in the area created to control the water regime. The ancient Aqua Mutiana still exists in the territory of Zelo Buon Persico and corresponds to the current Muzzetta canal.
To irrigate the vegetable gardens and gardens of the villa owned by the family located where Muzzano is now, Tito Muzio had the waters derive from the branch of the Addetta just above the current Portoni di Paullo, channeling them through the territories of Paullo (which was then called Padulum) and Muzzano, to then make them flow back into the Adda north of Villa Pompeiana. Tito Muzio, moreover, must have had the credentials to carry out this undertaking, if on a plaque preserved in the Broletto of Lodi (T. Mutio tf gracili praef. Fabbr IIII Vir I.D. D.D. Pubblice) is cited with the qualification of prefect of the blacksmith, a position roughly corresponding to the current engineer.
The ancestors of the farms
Where Muzzano is now, the gens Mutia (today we would say the Muzia family) owned a large estate, called Agrum Mutianum.
The large Roman farms were called villae and can be considered, in the overall concept of economic and productive unit and in the structuring of spaces and buildings, the distant ancestors of farmhouses. According to Romano Pignotti, a researcher who in his writings has dealt a lot with the Paullese area and its history, the Agrum Mutianum was probably the main agricultural center of the area.
Tito Muzio chose to locate it on the left of the road that from Padulum (Paullo) led to Laus Pompeia (Lodi Vecchio). He organized it as a typical Roman military camp, that is, a rectangle divided into four equal parts: a plan that the current Muzzano still maintains. According to the reconstruction by Pignotti, in the northwest panel there was the main villa with the park, the swimming pools, the altar of the Lari (tutelary deities of the family) and the garden bordered by a double row of willows.
In the north-eastern box there were the gardens and the lodgings of the servants and freedmen as well as the military garrison, while in the south-west there were the orchard, the vineyard and the shelter for the horses. Finally, in the south-eastern square there was a shelter for working animals (oxen, buffaloes, mules, donkeys), sheepfolds, chicken coops, pigsties, servants' gardens and lodgings for slaves.
Like any typical Roman villa, that of the gens Mutia was essentially a self-sufficient structure both economically and administratively, with a small internal military garrison to defend its inhabitants from possible raids by bandits and protect the crops. In the Roman territorial organization, the villa also had a basic strategic and military function; new recruits were recruited and trained in the villae, and supplies of various kinds for the army departed from the villae: horses, mules, timber, as well as animals for slaughter, fodder, flour, oil and other provisions.
With the arrival of the barbarians culminating in the invasion of the Lombards in 568 AD even in the Lodi area there is the destruction, sacking and decay of many inhabited centers that flourished in Roman times. Some signs of the works carried out for the benefit of agricultural activities survive: the regular scanning of the cultivated fields, the road communication network, the irrigation systems, starting with the Aqua. Mutiana, probably the first irrigation canal in the Lombardy region, as has been said.
Italian miracle
After the descent of the Lombards In Italy it will take about four centuries for the productive activity, and above all the agricultural one, to regain full momentum in the Lodi area. The monastic orders are now driving the economic recovery, owners in many areas of vast expanses of territory. Already in 972 the Benedictine friars of the monastery of San Pietro di Lodi Vecchio had decided to undertake the reclamation of the north-western side of Lake Gerundo, to conquer new land suitable for cultivation in the marshes and marshes.
The decisive date for the productive and economic take-off of the Lodi area is in any case 1220 (or, according to other sources, 1222). It is the year in which, in fact, after having fought fiercely in the time of Frederick Barbarossa (between 1150 and 1158), the Milanese and Lodi join forces to create an unprecedented civil work that will transform the region southeast of Milan in one of the most prosperous agricultural areas in Europe.
To remedy the progressive burial and stagnation of the Addetta (then a right branch of the Adda that flowed from Cassano to Melegnano) it is thought to "recover" the bed of this river to give rise to an irrigation channel for the whole Lodigiano. . From Paullo it was decided to start an artificial canal dug from scratch, parallel to the Adda and Lambro rivers. With the technical advice of the expert Benedictine and Cistercian monks, the transformation and artificial continuation of the natural course of the Addetta is started, which gives rise to a channel that can be adjusted by man according to the variable needs of irrigation. The transformation and excavation work ended in 1230. The new canal was first called Adda Nuova: soon however, since, like Aqua Mutia, it took the waters from the Addetta, it stole the name "Muzza" from the small canal of Roman era, which, given its size, became the Muzzetta instead.
The Muzza still today derives from the Adda at Cassano, flows through the territories of Trucazzano, Comazzo and Merlino up to the Porte di Paullo. Here the waters of the Muzza are regulated and partially discharged into the Attaché. The Muzza diverts its course towards the south, parallel to the Adda, passing through the territories of Mulazzano, Zelo Buon Persico and Cervignano, directed to the Tavazzano power plant and finally reaching Castigllone d'Adda, where it rejoins the Adda.
A great wealth of water
Also in Zelo Buon Persico, the abundant availability of water has been an important premise since the Middle Ages for the fulfillment and realization of an advanced and flourishing agriculture.
Applying to the letter the rule of St. Benedict, "ora et labora", the monks had been promoters of a series of deforestations and canalizations, which had transformed swamps and scrublands, which then constituted a part of the territory, into fertile and cultivated land.
The Benedictines also dedicated themselves to the same activity who, starting from 1084, settled in a new monastery, built in Abbadia Cerreto, just beyond the Adda: thus the foundations of the great Lodi agriculture, which two hundred years later would have had a new impulse from the opening of the Muzza irrigation canal.
La Muzza arrives in the municipality of Zelo Buon Persico touching its southwestern border with the municipality of Mulazzano, after passing through the territories of Trucazzano, Comazzo, Merlino, Paullo and Mulazzano. The water of the canals that innervate the cultivated area of Zelo Buon Persico comes from mouths located north of the town, in the municipalities of Comazzo, Merlino and Paullo. The access of the water of the Muzza canal to the irrigation network of Zelo Buon Persico is regulated by locks located on the sides of the canal in correspondence with small artificial dams. Each of the channels has a flow of water (measured in ounces per minute) regulated by the locks, according to the needs of the land crossed.
Depending on the extension of the agricultural area used, each farm has the right to receive a certain number of ounces of water, in thirteen-day shifts, (traditionally called "water wheels"), during which the number of hours per user required to fully irrigate each property.
In the municipal area of Zelo Buon Persico the main canals are the following:
- Muzzetta canal (the ancient Aqua Mutia of Roman origin), which crosses from Molinetto, to the northwest, passes through Muzzano, touches Molinazzo and arrives at Villa Pompeiana, to the southeast;
- Fasola canal, which from Zelo passes alongside Casolate and reaches the north of Villa Pompeiana, where it joins the Muzzetta canal;
- canal Fasolina canal, which bathes the land around Bisnate;
- Zelo Ospitale canal (or Zela) which from Zelo reaches Mignete, from where a branch to Casolate starts;
- Bertonica canal, which from Paullo enters the municipality of Zelasco at the Aurora farm, proceeds in a straight line towards Molinazzo, crossing the Muzzano area, and continues south in the Cervignano d'Adda area.
Among the other canals that irrigate the municipal territory of Zelo, the Quartera canal to the north and the Nuova canal to the south should still be mentioned. From a landscape and naturalistic point of view, the most interesting watercourses are the Muzzetta canal, in particular in the last winding stretch, before flowing into the Mortone; the Bertonica canal, which in the most distant stretch from the Adda flows at the foot of a tree-lined escarpment, and then forms some swamps rich in vegetation; finally the Calandrone colo (on the border between the municipalities of Zelo and Merlino) which in the eastern section, before reaching the oxbow lake north of Bisnate, flows at the foot of a slope full of trees.
Until the beginning of the Second World War the water from the canals was used not only for irrigation, but also for watering livestock. During the winter, when the waters of the irrigation network froze, the ice produced was crammed into many farmhouses in specially built iceboxes to preserve it for as long as possible.
The iceboxes, still widespread until around the Second World War, were constructions largely dug deep into the earth, with the roof covered with rice straw (waterproofing and insulating) and clods of earth, so much so as to form a small artificial hump .
The ice packed in there was used in the summer for the most diverse purposes: to have cold refreshing water, but above all to keep the butter produced cool and prevent it from going rancid due to the heat.
In Zelo Buon Persico there is still one of these iceboxes: presumably it dates back to the early nineteenth century, it is dug into the ground to a depth of about seven meters and is located on the back of an eighteenth-century building in via Muzzano (almost at the intersection with via Giussano ) which until 1987 hosted the property agency of the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan, set up to monitor and manage the property of the entity in the area of Zelo Buon Persico directly on site.
Agellum Gomperticum
The name of Zelo Buon Persico probably derives from the corruption of the Latin agellum Gomperticum (ie "small farm of Gomperto"). According to some scholars, the name agellum would be due to the particular location of the farm originally, already located at the time of the Romans between two large properties: the Agrum Martianum (hence today's Marzano) and the Agrum Mutianum (today Muzzano).
A first written document in which the name of Zelo appears dates back to 972, the original parchment has been lost, and there is only a copy made in 1500 by Defendente Lodi: this document was deciphered and transcribed, together with many others, also found in the Municipal Library of Lodi and in the State Archives of Milan, by the priest Cesare Vignati, a historian from Lodi, towards the middle of the 19th century.
Vignati then published, between 1879 and 1885, the text of all the parchments in 3 volumes, which he titled "Laudense Diplomatic Code". These are very varied texts: contracts, diplomas, wills, which cover a period ranging from 759 to 1300.
The deed of the year 972 that interests us is signed by the bishop of Lodi, Andrea, and by his councilors: there are about 20, including priests, deacons and sub-deacons. In the document, Andrea grants the monks of the Benedictine Monastery of San Pietro near the walls of Lodi (it is Lodivecchio, that is the ancient Laus) the exemption from the payment of tithes on goods, fields and vineyards that they had in the diocese: in all around forty villages are named, a clear sign of the wealth of the monastery of Lodivecchio; mentioned we find Mulazzano, Quartiano, Cassino, Paullo, Zelo and Dresano.
Tithes were a very important element of ecclesiastical income; theoretically it was a question of paying to the Church a tenth part of the income from whoever drew fruit from the soil, from the waters, from the breeding of animals: it was an obligation for all the faithful, who often paid for it in kind.
Some of these tithes were withheld by the local church, the rest went to the bishop.
There were "extraordinary" tithes, different from those that had to be paid each year by the faithful to the Parishes and to the Bishop; in these cases it was the Pope himself who, according to the needs of the Apostolic See, imposed an extraordinary tax on the Dioceses and Parishes.
It remains to talk about Andrea, a Lombard bishop by birth, who ruled the diocese of Lodi for more than 30 years, from 970 to 1002, and who is also a real feudal lord, invested with temporal authority by the emperor.
As we have said, it was the moment in which the German emperors, to counterbalance the power of the feudal lords, granted the bishops a whole series of privileges and offices: in this way Andrea obtained from Otto I and Otto II power over the city walls and over the markets, over the woods, streams and mills in the countryside; all for a radius of 7 miles around the city.
In a document preserved in the Episcopal Archive of Lodi, in the XII century a certain Gompertus. is the owner of some land in the current municipal area of Zelo.
In the year 836. The name Agello appears, in a document drawn up in Milan that year, among the properties of a foreigner, named Unger, resident in Milan, who declares that he wants to assign his assets to Guzone.
In the year 1112, Dolcevita and Enrico, sons of Amizone de Agello, de civitate Lauda (in the district of Lodi) granted in level to Ottone and Ambrogio da Cornate some lands of the bishopric of Lodi, extended between Casolate and Galgagnano.
On 24 March 1219, a notarial deed drawn up on that date shows that the mayors, procurators, messengers and consuls, together with other people both from Zelo and from other neighboring countries led by Musso, priest of the church of Sant'Andrea, they sell the castle to the mayor of Lodi, Gualtiero Dulciano, keeping only a small part of it as property of the monastery of San Simpliciano, for the price of one hundred lire. The deed was signed and freed by the notary Anselmo Maroesio, in the presence of five witnesses.
This document therefore attests, on the one hand, the importance of the castle of Zelo and, on the other hand, a certain influence achieved by the Zelasca community towards the surrounding villages.
In the year 1261, the church of Sant'Andrea di Zelo and the monastery of Santa Maria must pay the papal legate Guala an "extraordinary" tithe of three and a half and three soldi respectively, this is the request for a contribution to finance the war that the Pope was waging in those years against Manfredi, king of Sicily.
It is not clear who was the pope who had ordered the collection: in 1261, in fact, Alexander IV died (25.03.1261) and Urban IV was elected (4.09.1261). After the initial sentence "Haec talia domini Gualae notarti et legate domini Papae, MCCLXI" (translation: "This is the tax of the notary Guala, legate of the Pope, year 1261"), the document names about 180 churches, hospitals and monasteries of the Lodi, with different taxes, higher for the most important institutions.
In the year 1493, the zelaschi assigned to the order of the Dominicans the church of San Pietro, recently erected on the place where the monastery of Santa Maria previously stood, with thirteen poles of land as income.
In the year 1500, the parish benefit of the church of Sant'Andrea was elevated to commendation in favor of the Barni family of Lodi. Year 1502. Zelo is sacked in passing by the French troops of Charles VIII, on their way from Milan to Naples.
On 10 April 1509, during the war between France and the Duchy of Milan against the Republic of Venice, a Venetian spy is captured in Zelo, who will then be taken to Lodi, tried and hanged.
On April 19, September 1521, a company of Gascons, part of the French troops, devastated some towns in the Paullese area, including Zelo.
In the year 1546, the fiefdom of Zelo was ceded to the Tassis princes who kept it until the fiefs were extinguished in 1782. The Tassis family had obtained Milanese citizenship since 1457 by Francesco Sforza I.
Zelo Buon Persico feudal
To support the wars that periodically bled the coffers of the state, the Spanish government was always looking for money; and since he was not very efficient in administration, he had found a way to outsource everything: duties, customs, the monopoly of salt, that of tobacco, gunpowder, post offices, transport.
However, the money was never enough, and the government began to sell the fiefdoms: in 150 years (from 1554 to 1706) the Spaniards sold 276 fiefs in the Duchy of Milan.
The new feudal system, however, had nothing to do with the medieval one: there the feudal lord owned the land of his fief, had the right of life and death over his subjects, had the obligation to provide soldiers and take sides in war with the sovereign. ; here the power of the feudal lord was by now emptied of content, and was reduced almost only to the honorary title; the owner of the fief might very well not own even a farm in his territory, however, he had the title of marquis or count, depending on the extent of the fief, and the right to judge the subjects.
In reality he could only judge rural and minor matters, because important cases and those in which a citizen was involved were left to the city judge.
Whoever wanted to buy a fiefdom had to participate in an auction made by the Government, and the base price was commensurate with the number of fires, that is, of the families, and the number and value of any related privileges.
Once the agreed sum had been paid, the new count or marquis had to take an oath of loyalty to the king and to the governor, and had to repeat it at each succession.
In turn, the feudal lord, at the time of the investiture, took the oath of loyalty from his subjects.
The title was transmissible only through the male line: on the death of the owner, in the absence of male children, the fiefdom returned to the state, and was put up for auction.
A community could oppose the feudation but only if it was ready to pay, with a serious financial sacrifice, the price of its freedom: this fact was called "redemption".
However, the state property gave the communities that wanted to redeem themselves a year of time, and generally the price to pay for the redemption was 1/3 lower than that of the auction notice.
Before an auction, the government sent a tax lawyer to do what was called the apprehension of the fiefdom, that is, the knowledge of all the elements that could contribute to define the base value of the auction.
In 1538 the Spanish government sells the fiefdom of Paullo and lands united to Antonio Carcassola the fiefdom includes 7 communities: Paullo, Bisnate, Zelo Buon Persico, Marzano, Quartiano, Cervignano Mulazzano.
Eight years later (13 August 1346) the fiefdom itself was sold to Simone Tassi, who had been promised two years earlier by none other than the Emperor Charles V.
The Tassi were an illustrious family, originally from Cornello in Val Brembana, and had the lordship of the Cornello valley and the nearby mountains.
They began to exercise the courier office in the Bergamo area, but soon the family spread to various countries, specializing in organizing the postal service.
Already in 1496 there is a Tassi "Maestro delle Poste" for the connections between the Duchy of Milan and the Court of the Emperor Maximilian.
In 1332, by order of Charles V, Simone Tassi was appointed Mastro delle Poste of His Majesty Caesarea in Milan, but also Simone's brothers, in the sixteenth century, became responsible for postal services throughout Europe, at the same time as Venice, Rome, in Austria, Spain and Flanders, and they passed on these offices to their descendants.
Initially, the mail organized in this way was exclusively a state service, but soon the Tassi began to accept letters and parcels from private persons, despite the prohibition in this regard: this explains the secret of the enormous earnings of this family who, taking advantage of an organization paid by the state, they also enjoyed the proceeds of public service.
Postal services were carried out by couriers on horseback, but also by stagecoaches, which could also transport travelers.
Until 1673 the fiefdom including Zelo Buon Persico remains by descent to the Marquis Antonio Tassi, on the death of the Marquis in the same year without male descendants the fiefdom becomes the property of the government, which makes a new "apprehension", in order to be able to put it back up for auction.
Unfortunately, the documents relating to the fiefdom after 1673 are no longer there: in the State Archives of Milan the binder that was supposed to group them is empty. We can only reconstruct, with some doubts, the subsequent history of the fiefdom, on the basis of a list - this remains - of the missing documents.
The fiefdom was released in 1674 to a side branch of the Tassi family, passing to a Marquis PierFrancesco, then to a Marquis Michele (1687) who later became Prince in 1702, and finally to Prince Antonio Della Torre Tassi.
The Pandina and the "Bernabò"
Looking at a somewhat detailed geographical map of southern Milan, one cannot help but notice a perfectly straight stretch of road which, starting from Melegnano, passes through Mulazzano and stops at Villa Pompeiana, meeting the Adda.
It is the provincial road number 138, "Pandina" road.
But if our observer looks over the river, he realizes that from Spino d'Adda another straight stretch of road of about 3 kilometers starts, which reaches Pandino, and which is exactly on the same line as the Melegnano - Villa Pompeiana road.
We must look for the explanation of this strangeness in the times of Bernabò Visconti.
It was the mid-1300s, and on the death of Giovanni Visconti, lord of Milan, the two brothers Galeazzo II and Bernabò had agreed on the sharing of power.
Galeazzo had the territories and castles of Monza, Vigevano and Abbiate, Bernabò those of Melegnano, Pandino and Vaprio d'Adda, while the city and the countryside of Milan were divided in half.
The two brothers were very different: the more handsome Galeazzo, with long blond pageboy hair, his face framed by a well-groomed beard; On the contrary, Bernabò is rough, selfish, cruel.
Bernabò endowed with an almost animal vitality, exalted himself in the violence of weapons. He had a splendid wife, Regina della Scala, with whom he had 15 children; despite this, he continually sought the charms of other women, sowing the fiefs of his sons.
In the castle of Melegnano Bernabò spent several months of the year, alternating state care with hunting, jokes of bad taste and various amusements: some episodes in his life have become legend.
The dilemma that he posed in 1362 to the two Legates of Pope Innocent VI, who brought him the decree of excommunication, is well known. Bernabò went to meet them on the Lambro bridge, and when one of the messengers, Abbot Guglielmo da Grimoard, had finished reading the papal bull, he asked him if he preferred to eat or drink.
And since it seemed that the Legate did not understand, he told him outright that he had to choose between eating the bubble or throwing himself into the Lambro to drink the water of the river.
Guglielmo obviously preferred to swallow the bull, the cord and the sealing wax seal, under the pleased gaze of Bernabò and his court.
Bernabò then had to repent of this bravado, because William, who became pope in the same year with the name of Urban V, did not forget the offense he had received, and hastened to declare Visconti a heretic.
Another well-known episode is the one that tells of Bernabò who, while hunting in the woods around Melegnano, got lost and, having met a farmer from Dresano, asked him to be his guide.
On the way, the farmer, who had not recognized Bernabò, had let himself go to say plague and horns of the lord of Melegnano and, having arrived at the castle, he had realized too late the identity of his interlocutor. In spite of his fears, the unfortunate man, however, had been forgiven and even rewarded for his sincerity.
Another story is the one that wants that in Pedriano there was a large breeding of dogs, which, in addition to accompanying the Visconti on his hunting trips, would have had the task of eliminating the victims of his atrocities.
Bernabò was responsible for the construction of other castles, in addition to Melegnano: Pandino, Desio, Senago and Cusago.
None of these castles were built in a military strategic position, and it is so likely, as reported by some historians, that the five castles arose above all for Bernabò's delight: within their walls the lord sought isolation, tranquility, and above all the possibility of being able to practice hunting in the surrounding area, for which he had an almost maniacal passion.
From the numerous letters written by the various residences (excluding those written from Milan, there are about 250), it appears that the places most frequented by Bernabò were Pandino and Melegnano.
It is therefore natural that he decided to build a connecting road between the two localities: it is the Pandina road, a long straight road of about 18 kilometers that connected the two castles, and which certainly included a bridge over the Muzza in Mulazzano and a crossing of the Adda (simple ford, ferry or even a wooden bridge?) at the height of Villa Pompeiana.
There are no documents on the date of construction of the Pandina, but we must think that it must be placed after 1355, the year in which, having obtained power together with his brother, Bernabò could easily have the necessary capital.
Bernabò died in 1385, after 6 months of imprisonment in the castle of Trezzo, after being ousted by his nephew GianGaleazzo, who thus became absolute lord.
The castle of Melegnano, after the Visconti, passed to the Sforza, then to the Brivio, and finally in 1332 to the Medici family. from D'Adda.
Basically, not long after Bernabò's death, the two castles no longer belonged to the same owner, and there were those who frequently had to move from one castle to another.
The importance of the road decreased, even if a map of the Lodigiano of 1709 still shows it in evidence throughout its path, and seems to indicate a bridge at Villa Pompeiana.
Probably in the 19th century the passage on the Adda di Villa was abandoned, and the stretch of road beyond the Adda was downgraded to the level of a country path.
In the papers of the State Archives of Milan there is a beautiful description of the Pandina road, which dates back to 1700:
.... the Pandina road leads from Marignano all'Adda, that is to the royal port of Spino, from where you pass to it place of Spino, then to Pandino, to Vailate and then to Crema, and it is always a straight, wide road, and it can be said almost delightful for the straightness, for the width of the site and the height and amenities of the trees that shade it, and it is the shortest way from Milan to Crema, while keeping the via di Lodi it stretches five miles ... "
The fractions
Bisnate
The origin and name of this hamlet are traced back to the 4th century BC, during the domination of the Galli Boi. It has always been an important crossing point for crossing the Adda, which here is narrower than its normal course.
In the eleventh century a first fortified post was raised to control the passage, which later gave rise to a castle.
In the year 1239, Emperor Frederick II, at war against the Milanese, encamped with his army between Bisnate and Casolate.
In September 1449, after the conquest of Lodi by Francesco Sforza on 12 September 1449, the Sforza troops reached the fleeing Venetians in Bisnate and stripped them of weapons, horses and luggage. Francesco Sforza intervenes personally, making them return everything and making them cross the Adda to Lodi. Thanks to the intervention of Pope Nicholas V, peace was concluded again in Lodi on 9 April 1454 between the Duchy of Milan and the Republic of Venice.
Year 1465. Cristoforo Spilimberto de 'Cani is lord of Bisnate.
In May 1509, after the battle of Agnadello between France and the Republic of Venice, a bridge of boats was thrown over the Adda to allow the passage of the river to Venetian subjects who came to recognize their dead.
In the year 1531, Pietro de 'Cani di Bisnate ceded some assets to the church of the Incoronata of Lodi.
In the year 1546, the fiefdom of Bisnate was ceded to Prince Simone Tassis, a family of Neapolitan origin, but which became Milanese in 1457.
In the year 1552, Marcello de 'Cani published "L'Amorosa Fenice" in Pavia, a description of the beautiful Lodi women of the time.
In the year 1600, Agesilao de 'Cani was appointed Commander of Milan.
In 1815, by order of the Austrian government, a wooden bridge was built to replace the old port with a ferry, at the expense of the municipalities of Bisnate and Spino d'Adda.
Year 1859, the wooden bridge built in 1815 was destroyed by the retreating Austrians during the second war of independence.
In 1901, the bridge over the Adda was inaugurated, with five brick and masonry arches, on the occasion of the arrangement of the road between Milan and Pandino.
Casolate
Year 900, in a document of this year concerning an exchange of goods between the monastery of Lodi and that of Nonantola, Giseperto and Ambrosiano "de vico Casolate" are mentioned.
23 October 1147, in an act concerning the ownership of a wood near the Adda, called Gerra or Addella, Bonushomo de Casolate is mentioned as a witness in favor of the bishop of Lodi against the peasants of Cervignano.
Year 1148, Bishop Lanfranco leases a gravel pit in the Addella area to Alberto Prandoni di Casolate and Amico de Mignado (i.e. Mignete).
Year 1156, Bishop Lanfranco confirms the leasing contract for the Addella wood in the presence of the priest Gulfredo and the priest Rolando "di Casolai".
Year 1239, between Casolate and Bisnate the army of Federi co II camps, at war against the Milanese.
Year 1261, the church of Casolate must pay five imperial money to the papal legate Guala for the war against Manfredi in Sicily.
Year 1488, Francesco Sforza establishes his headquarters in Casolate in the war against the Republic of Venice.
Year 1609, Casolate is still a fief of the de 'Cani di Bisnate family.
Year 1650, Casolate becomes a fief of the Counts Melzi Malingegni, until the extinction of the fiefdoms in 1782.
Year 1757, Francesco Piazza (1757-1829) was born in Casolate, priest and founder of the Dominican order of the Holy Rosary (later spread also to Zelo Buon Persico, Comazzo and Lavagna) and of an institute for girls.
In 1831, the San Domenico boarding school for girls was built.
Mignete
Year 1261, the church of Migate (ie Mignete), part of the parish of Galgagnano, pays thirteen imperial denarii to the papal legate Guala to help with the expenses of the war against Manfred of Swabia in Sicily.
Year 1538, the fief of Mignete was ceded to Giovanni de 'Cani di Bisnate.
Year 1543, Tommaso Codazzi, canon of the Milanese church of Santa Maria della Scala, is commander of the church of Mignete.
Year 1668, the fiefdom of Mignete is sold, by diploma of Charles II, to Cecilia Besozzi widow Bovesana, at the price of 50 lire per fire (ie hearth and therefore family, 50 in number); it then passes to Count Cesare Bovesana and finally to the regent Carlo Maria Crivelli.
Pompeian Villa
The origin of the name is linked to the probable presence of a villa (and a river port) owned by the Roman patrician Gneo Pompeo Strabene (150-80 BC) in the years around 120 BC.
Year 1100, in a bull of Pope Alexander II confirming the rights of the monasteries of the Virgins of Pavia, among the various possessions it is mentioned "in laudensi Episcopatum Villam Pulpignanam cum Capella Sancti Michaelis", where "Villam Pulpignanam" is the Latin transcription of the name in vulgar of Villa Pompeiana.
Year 1194, the church of Santa Maria di Montebello was founded by Pietro Bello di Bisnate, who was then equipped with the necessary furnishings by his son Gregorio. In the document certifying the event, among other things, the "Mare Gerondo" is mentioned.
Year 1272, the church of Santa Maria obtained a piece of land from the bishop of Lodi for the maintenance of the priest Bonaventura and for the expenses of worship.
Year 1358, the rectory of Villa Pompeiana given in commendation to the nobleman from Lodi Berinzaghi.
Year 1388, the land area of the church of Santa Maria is entrusted to Maffeo Vegio.
Year 1423, the humanist Maffeo Vegio (perhaps a relative of the homonymous just mentioned) wrote the "Cantica Pompeiana" at Villa Pompeiana.
Year 1518, the rectory of Villa Pompeiana is given in commendation to Gabriele Barni, waiter of Pope Leo X and also commander of the church of Cervignano.
