Cassinetta of Lugagnano - Cassinetta di Lugagnano

Cassinetta of Lugagnano is a center of the Lombardy.

To know

It is part of the most beautiful villages in Italy.

The town is formed by the union of two centers, Cassinetta and Lugagnano precisely, divided by the Naviglio.The real heritage of the place are the splendid villas of delight linked to the names of the great Milanese families such as the Trivulzio, Visconti, Mantegazza, Castiglioni and Parravicini families. These noble houses undoubtedly they constituted a point of reference for the owners that allowed them to carry out periodic checks on the management of the land by the tenants; but since the Cassinetta area possessed considerable landscape attractions, they were mainly used as a holiday home.

The same fate also had numerous other municipalities that arose in the vicinity of the Naviglio Grande such as Robecco sul Naviglio is Corbetta.

Geographical notes

It is located in the Milanese Po Valley, on the Naviglio and not far from Ticino, beyond which the Lomellina. It is 3 km from Abbiategrasso, 17 from Vigevano, 26 from Milan, 28 from Novara.

Background

The oldest part of the town is that of Lugagnano, on the right bank of the Naviglio, where the first settlements date back to the Roman era: some finds of sepulchral finds are currently preserved in the Pisani Dossi Museum in Corbetta. The granite sarcophagus, with leftovers of plates and crockery in glass and terracotta, found in an unspecified period in the Cassinetto countryside, could date back to an era prior to the year 1000.

The village of Lugagnano - Lugagnano was a vast settlement that extended to the borders of Abbiategrasso and of Robecco on whose territory there is news of the existence of a castle surrounded by a moat and a church dedicated to San Protasio. In the Middle Ages the town was perched around a castle surrounded by a moat, which was a fiefdom of several lords. The local history therefore for many centuries was identified with that of the owners of the manor. In the thirteenth century it was owned by the Casterno family, and then passed to the Pietrasanta. In 1358 Uberto di Pietrasanta sold it to the nearby territory of Robecco. It was given as a fief in 1451 by the Duke of Milan Francesco Sforza to Baldassare Barzi. The latter banished for fratricide, the fiefdom was devolved to the Chamber of Milan in 1656 and granted to General Giovanni Vasquez de Coronado, castellan of Milan, the following year. In 1657 Lugagnano was then enfeoffed to the Barzi counts.

The village of Cassinetta - While Lugagnano underwent various troubles and changes of ownership, Cassinetta had a more peaceful history, managing to better preserve its autonomy. The noble Maffiolo Birago, Master of the Aula of the Ducal Chamber of Filippo Maria Visconti, had the oldest church in the area built in 1435 dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and to Sant'Antonio Abbot: it later became a parish church and also Lugagnano was included in its ecclesiastical jurisdiction. In 1428 the same Birago, thanks to the concession of Duke Filippo Maria Visconti, had a canal dug that derived from the Naviglio Grande and which, crossing the town, would have made the blades of a mill work, still existing and functioning (Mulino della Pazza Biraga). This canal, still called Roggia Biraga today, roughly marks the border between the two towns of Cassinetta and Lugagnano.

How to orient yourself

How to get

By plane

• 45.6661869.7018081 Bergamo-Orio al Serio Airport (the Caravaggio), Via Aeroporto 13, Orio al Serio, ☎ 39 035 326323. 
• 45.638.7230562 Milan-Malpensa Airport (MXP), Ferno. The airport has two terminals (T1 and T2), the second is used for low cost flights. The bus service Motorway connects the airport with Milan central station in about 50 minutes, while the Malpensa Express it connects Terminal 1 with Cadorna station in 40 minutes (red and green metro lines). The buses of the Sadem is Motorway reach the city of Turin (2 hours), while the company Foxes make some trips for Genoa (3 hours). 
• 45.452179.27633 Milan-Linate airport (Enrico Forlanini). 
• 45.42555610.3269444 Brescia Airport (D'Annunzio), Via Aeroporto 34, Montichiari (Connections with Brescia airport are guaranteed by public transport via the bus. The stop a Brescia city ​​is located at the bus station (number 23), while that of the airport is at the front of the terminal. There are also connections to the city of Verona via bus / shuttle line 1), ☎ 39 045 8095666, @[email protected]. Charter only 

By car

• It is affected by the state road 526 Abbiategrasso - Magenta

On the train

• Railway station ad Abbiategrasso.

By bus

• The town is connected by bus line to Abbiategrasso.

How to get around

What see

• Parish church of Sant'Antonio Abate. The parish church of Sant'Antonio Abate was built in 1435 at the behest of the local Biraghi family, who wanted to give the town a center of worship; it was restored and embellished in 1731 with the construction of a bell tower and interior decoration. Significant is the small pronaos resting on Baveno granite columns that precedes the entrance to the church, which for a long time led this work to a project by Francesco Richini; currently this attribution, due to the lack of elements, has been found to be unfounded. 
• Oratory of San Giuseppe. The small oratory is a private religious building built in the first half of the 18th century by the architect Carlo Federico Castiglioni for his villa (the current Villa Castiglioni-Nai-Bossi) in Cassinetta. The chapel, typically set on the baroque style features of the baroque noble church, is located near the villa itself, located on the towpath of the Naviglio Grande and is characterized by a two-tiered façade, divided between them by double pilasters with a very worked Corinthian capital. 

The villas of Lugagnano

• Villa Birago-Clari-Monzini. The villa, recently restored and used as luxurious private homes, is a splendid testimony of the ancient and large residence that stood in Lugagnano, on the right bank of the Naviglio. At that time the large park was cut by a long avenue of 800 meters, interspersed with pairs of pillars which, having crossed the course of the canal, ended in the great exedra of Villa Negri. The quadrangular structure that frames the central courtyard suggests the hypothesis that the building is the evolution of the ancient fortress of Lugagnano which is presumed to have been built around 1558 by the Birago family and confiscated in 1691 by the Camera Regia.

Later the building was enlarged and was structured as a civil court, with a door that opens onto a small square flanked by two rustic courtyards. The main house rises on three floors, with a very sober facade. Outside, still on the square, the deconsecrated oratory dedicated to S. Anna, blessed in 1721 which kept a canvas depicting the Virgin with Child and Saints, attributed to Nuvolone, now stolen. 

• Mantegazza-Macinaghi Palace. The house overlooks the Trivulzio square with a simple arched door; the civil courtyard is surrounded on three sides by buildings, assuming an irregular U-shaped plan. Two of the sides of the building rise on three floors defining an L-shaped plan, with equal arms; the facades show irregularities in the distribution of the windows. The façade towards the garden is characterized by numerous openings that highlight the various interventions made on the construction. 
• Villa Trivulzio. The village context in which the villa is located, while it can enhance the natural atmosphere, does not enhance the beautiful neoclassical architecture. Located at the entrance to the road to Robecco, it presents an asymmetry and anomalies that support the hypothesis that it arose by adapting a previous construction. The building, in the characteristic Lombard yellow, has an L-shaped plan, formed by the central body and a wing of cottages with the chapel. Around a large and well-kept garden full of old trees.

The north facade is open to the park and the entrance is adorned with four elegant statues and a small temple. It takes up the architectural lines of the south one (which overlooks the small square along the provincial road), from which it is distinguished, however, by the long rectangular granite balcony, which breaks the rigorous rhythm of the central tripartition, and the balustrade above the roof, enriched from six granite vases. The current neoclassical aspect was given to this noble house in the first decades of the nineteenth century. 

• Villa Frotta-Eusebio. The old gate, overlooking the central street of Cassinetta, opens onto a large courtyard at the end of which the palace stands. The date of construction is not certain but it is presumed to date back to the first half of the eighteenth century. The villa is divided into three floors highlighted by soft bands painted with floral motifs. The play of lines created by the alternation of doors and windows is pleasant. In the center of the façade the only wrought iron balcony on a stucco shelf. The interior, now divided into lodgings, does not preserve the original appearance which was characterized by a double succession of telescope rooms. 
• Villa Grosso Pambieri. Today simply called Villa Pambieri, the house overlooks the main street of Cassinetta di Lugagnano with a courtyard closed by a gate. The courtyard, with a rectangular plan, is delimited by the central body of the house and by two lateral bodies forming a C-shaped plan. The building has been completely restored, maintaining the original structure. The central facade is very simple, a large window illuminates the finely restored entrance patio, which preserves the original frescoes.

The two external columns, with a squat and heavy line, resting directly on a long granite step, divide the space of the façade into three zones of different width, the central one approximately four times the lateral spaces. The openings on the ground floor are almost all French windows that lead into the various rooms and lounges to allow direct contact with nature at any time of day and from any environment: the garden becomes another internal space among the greenery. 

The villas along the Naviglio

The Naviglio Grande for centuries it was an important communication and transport route to the Lombard capital. This also allowed, even in a certain comfort at the time, to leave the city and reach holiday and hunting resorts and, more and more wealthy families discovered the tranquility and healthy air of these rural areas. Thus it was that owning a villa along the waterways surrounding Milan became a fashion fact. Then the magnificent villas arose, stately homes, surrounded by parks and gardens designed and built for the harmony of the view.

• Villa Beolco-Negri (Municipal building). Adjacent to the Cassinetta bridge, in front of the statue of San Carlo Borromeo, stands the Beolco-Negri house, the current town hall. Not much remains of the old noble house because when in 1921 the building was sold by the owners to Don Ravazzi, parish priest of Cassinetta, he transformed part of it into a kindergarten and rented the rest as a laboratory. The plan of the house is complex: several heterogeneous bodies close the internal courtyard on three sides. The front overlooking the square is open not only by windows, but also by an asymmetrical door, covered by a round arch. The façade towards the Naviglio is characterized by numerous windows and French windows opening onto the garden and was the part of the house where the various reception rooms were arranged. The entire building, raised on two floors, is horizontally marked by a string course. 
• Villa Visconti. The villa occupies the eastern side of the Naviglio and appears in its majesty, colored in the yellow of eighteenth-century and neoclassical Milan. It is in fact a city palace, tight and closed, which hides an unexpected interior. The origin of the villa is certainly ancient. The land was already owned by the Visconti in 1392, the year in which the canal that begins right in front of the villa was dug. The building as it appears today has an H-shaped plan, distributed over three floors, with the main axis oriented NW-SE, along the Naviglio, to which the building turns its side and not the front. The apparently unitary complex is the result of a series of changes that have affected the construction over the centuries.

The garden double is arranged on two floors: the first, Italian-style, ends with a central niche, in front of which theatrical performances apparently took place, the second, English-style, was designed by Balzaretto in 1850 and has a large central lawn with trees and amphitheater, while the rear part has been adapted as an orchard. The Coffee House, the icebox and two gazebos are well preserved in the garden. The two turrets and a niche with a statue aligned with the main entrance are inserted in the perimeter wall. The Villa has a chapel at the corner with the entrance from the street; it preserves frescoes by Ferrario (1728). 

• Krentzlin Palace. It is located at the intersection of the road to Corbetta and the towpath, on the eastern side of the canal, to testify the will of the nobles of the past in wanting to keep separate from the inhabited center by the people. The facade of the building towards the Naviglio is characterized by the regular interlayer of numerous windows in a pleasant geometry of lights and lines. The rear side of the house features an irregular opening of windows and French doors overlooking the vast park. Opposite the main entrance there is a pleasant eighteenth-century balcony with a wrought iron railing.

The park, full of secular plants and young shrubs, preserves the pleasant and orderly structure of the Italian garden. At the bottom, on a small column, stands a statue, visible from the Naviglio if all the doors are left open. To the right of the noble house, separated by a wrought iron gate, is the rustic block with its courtyard and the current entrance. 

• Spirit House. The house located along the Naviglio is completely visible beyond a gate placed parallel to the canal. This house, recently completely renovated, is characterized by the opening at regular intervals of numerous windows, which mark the facade. 
• Villa Castiglioni-Nai-Bossi. It is the last villa in the Cassinetta area that you meet after leaving Villa Krentzlin and following the towpath in the direction of Robecco. Behind a gate you can see the facade of the house whose central sector is raised and characterized on the ground floor by a portico with three arches; on the first floor there is a shaped balcony with wrought iron railing and in the mezzanine, a votive fresco with a lamp, flanked by two small balconies. This part is the only one that has a coating, while the remaining wings are left with exposed brick.

Built in the first half of the eighteenth century by the same owner, the architect Carlo Federico Castiglioni, presents on the side of the towpath, the oratory dedicated to San Giuseppe with two orders in front divided by double pilasters with a high base and Corinthian capital, while in the innermost part of the courtyard is the residential building, the interior of which, recently divided into apartments, has been restored in an English style. 

• Villa Bodio-Pallavicini-Bottle. Leaving Cassinetta to the east, towards Corbetta, you will find the villa. Today, of the ancient noble building, the villa no longer even retains the name. Following the recent renovations, the complex has taken the name of Cascina Bardena, having lost much of the architecture that characterized it. As evidence of the time that was, the internal façade remains, visible from the park of centuries-old trees and ancient statues. Of medieval origin and fief of the Trivulzio family, it became the property of the Birago and Bossi in the sixteenth century, passing to the Bodio in the eighteenth century, the major owners of the town, and then to the Pallavicini. The building was reduced to a farmhouse since the early nineteenth century. 
• Villa Gambotto-Negri. Sumptuous summer residence built by the Austrian general Dembowsky in 1761 and became in 1875, with the surrounding Cascina Piatti, owned by Gaetano Negri, a native of Cassinetta and then mayor of Milan. The villa is located a little outside the town, beyond the bridge over the Visconti canal, and the entrance already enhances its beauty. The main entrance, which overlooks the garden in front of the house, faces the road parallel to the Naviglio Grande, and is accessible through the stone bridge flanked by four centuries-old plane trees. The atrium, exedra, after the bridge, is made up of six pillars decorated with sculptures of vases filled with fruit, joined by a lower curtain wall, all elegantly divided into geometric panels. The central gate allows a glimpse of the main avenue of the Italian garden that leads to the villa. The building has a U-shaped plan with the central part well highlighted. The reception rooms, living room and dining room, are located at the garden level, since the villa was conceived as a summer residence, while the rooms are located on the upper floor. 
• The mill of the Mad Biraga. Probably the portion of land surrounding the right bank of the Naviglio was the first to be built towards the beginning of the 15th century. The first documents relating to the territory known as Cassina Biraga date back to 1428, the year in which Maffiolo Birago built the canal, deriving it from the Naviglio, for the operation of a mill. This, built shortly after, on the edge of the territory of Cassina Biraga and Lugagnano, is still existing and in operation after careful restoration. The construction still maintains a very solid structure with few openings; on one wall there is a slightly splayed ogival window framed by elegant plaster moldings. Considered to be the oldest among the functioning of the circle of canals, it preserves both the stone mill and all the related tools intact, including the wooden gears that connect the external blades to the transmission pulleys. In 1435 Birago also had a church built, which is still adjacent to the mill today. 
• Statue of San Carlo Borromeo. The construction of the statue in 1749, date carved on the Baveno granite base, was inspired by the tradition according to which in early November 1584 San Carlo Borromeo would have passed on the canal with a heavily ill barge and directed towards Milan where he died on 3 November. of the same year. The statue was subject to continuous restorations in 1884 and 1975, when the hand of the saint holding the cross was completely rebuilt (in which there is a relic of the saint). 

Events and parties

What to do

Shopping

How to have fun

Where to eat

Average prices

• Antica Osteria del Ponte. 

Where stay

• Farm The Hague, Cascina dei Piatti Towpath of the Naviglio Grande, 1 (ICEA certified organic farm), ☎ 39 02 94249090. 

Safety

Pharmacy

• Santagostino, Via Trento, ☎ 39 02 9420071. 

How to keep in touch

Post office

• 46.4242328.9052031 Italian post, Via Roma 71, ☎ 39 02 94599990. 

Around

• Abbiategrasso
• Vigevano - The past has left the castle, the cathedral and the splendid square to the city. The contemporary age has made it the capital of footwear.

Useful information

• Pro Loco, piazza Gaetano Negri (Town Hall) (Tourist Information Point). 

Other projects

• Wikipedia contains an entry concerning Cassinetta of Lugagnano
• Commons contains images or other files on Cassinetta of Lugagnano

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