Castellazzo
Castellazzo: history and music
Hello everyone! Today we'll talk about Castellazzo, a hamlet of the municipality of Bollate in the province of Milan. The hamlet is surrounded by the Groane Park and is located on the municipal border with Garbagnate Milanese.
Castellazzo: history and heritage
Castellazzo was an ancient municipality in the province of Milan with 240 residents registered in the assessment wanted by Empress Maria Theresa in 1771. In 1809 it was suppressed by a royal decree of Napoleon and annexed to Garbagnate Milanese, to be later reinstated with the return of the Austrian Empire. It was again suppressed in 1841 by a royal dispatch of the Lombardo-Veneto government, but this time to be incorporated into Bollate.
The hamlet developed around the historic Villa Arconati, already a national monument, also called "il Castellazzo". This is the venue for the Villa Arconati Festival every summer, an important music event that takes place in the suggestive setting of the villa in the months of June and July. If you have the opportunity, I recommend you to participate, it's truly a unique experience!
Sutter & Thevenot and the explosion of the factory
Castellazzo also has an industrial history: on June 7, 1918, an explosion destroyed the Petardo Thévenot explosives factory, causing the death of sixty workers, mostly women and girls. Among the military personnel called to arrange the area was Ernest Hemingway, at that time a volunteer in the American Red Cross, who mentioned the episode in his story "A Natural History of the Dead" in the anthology "The Fifth Column and Four Stories of the Spanish Civil War".
Infrastructure and transport
Historically, the hamlet of Castellazzo is crossed by the tracks of the Milan-Saronno railway of the North Milan Railways. Until 1990, the small and functional Castellazzo station was also active, historically used by the workers employed in the nearby brick factories and clay quarries for the production of bricks, which are clearly visible in the film "The Sun Also Rises", commissioned by the National Association of Italian Partisans. The film was shot in 1946 in the factories, in the courtyards of Castellazzo, as well as inside Villa Arconati, directed by Aldo Vergano.
Saving Castellazzo's heritage
The last resident of Villa Arconati, Donna Beatrice Crivelli, was the last custodian of the heritage constituted by Villa, Courtyards, and old Brickworks. Meanwhile, the heirs sold the entire property to some real estate companies, which did not waste time in monetizing as much as possible, deriving the maximum profits. Some projects were also prepared that provided for intensive construction on these areas, which would inevitably have been compromised. In addition to the reuse of the old courtyards, these projects envisaged the use of the original volumes of the old brickworks, with a change of use from "industrial areas" to "residential areas". Added to this was the progressive expulsion of the old tenants of the courtyards, also avoided thanks to the "Friends of Castellazzo" Association.
How to visit Castellazzo
If you want to visit Castellazzo, especially if you are passionate about history and culture, I recommend taking the Milan-Saronno railway of the North Milan Railways and getting off at the Bollate Centro station. From here you can take a bus that will take you directly to Castellazzo. Don't forget to visit Villa Arconati and participate in the Villa Arconati Festival if you pass through here during the summer!
I hope you enjoyed this brief tour of Castellazzo and that it gave you some inspiration for a trip out of town. Always remember to take the time to discover the beauties of the places that surround you!
