Castle of Legnano

About

The Visconti Castle is a medieval fortification that stands south of Legnano on a natural island in the Olona River. It has also been known as the castle of San Giorgio (lat. Castrum Sancti Georgi) since the 13th century. The architectural complex is located on Viale Toselli, between Castello Park and Piazza I Maggio.

The presence of a castle in Legnano is linked to the strategic function the city of Carroccio had from the Middle Ages to the 16th century. Legnano was located along an important medieval communication route that ran along the Olona River and connected Mediolanum (modern Milan ) with the Verbannus Lacus (Lake Verbano, i.e., Lake Maggiore ), the Via Severiana Augusta, which existed since Roman times. The modern Simplon road, built during the Napoleonic era, echoes in its layout the ancient road in use in Roman and medieval times.

The defense of Legnano was important because its eventual conquest could allow Milan's enemies easy access to the northwestern Milanese countryside due to the fact that it was located at the outlet of the Olona Valley, which ends at Castellanza and to aim, through this road, at the Milanese capital. In the Middle Ages Legnano, although formally belonging to Seprio, gravitated around Milan. The link between Milan and the city of the Carroccio was not only military, but also economic: Legnano and the other contadi that gravitated around the capital of Milan also supplied Milan with part of the foodstuffs produced.

When it belonged to the Viscontis, the castle of Legnano was part of a larger defensive system of the belt that enclosed Milan. In particular, fortifications were located in places where the Visconti owned a greater amount of real estate. The castles located around Milan served their function both for military purposes, mainly for external attacks and internal civil wars within the Milanese lordship, and for other purposes. They were also used as summer vacation spots, which allowed the lords to leave the city during the hottest months, during which water was scarce and heat prevailed, aided by the proximity of city buildings: at the time, dwellings in Milan were divided by narrow streets. Another use was the organization of hunting parties in the woods located near the castles, a sport that was very common in the 12th and 13th centuries.

In the Upper Milanese area, castles were numerous. The fortresses of Crenna, Somma Lombardo, Orago, Cassano Magnago, Fagnano Olona and Turbigo have also come down to the 21st century, while Busto Arsizio, Gallarate and Saronno possessed castles, later destroyed over the centuries.

In the 16th century, the village experienced a phase of decline, as it began to untie itself from Milan and gradually lost its strategic function; in this way, it turned from an important military outpost into a simple agricultural center. Already since the previous century, Seprio lost its rebellious attitude toward Milan, and thus the presence of fixed troops on the border of the Milanese countryside was no longer justified. As a result, the castle also lost its military function. For this reason, no artillery gun emplacements are found on the towers of the castle, which in fact began to spread on the battlefields precisely in the 16th century.

The origins of Legnano Castle are linked to an ancient convent of Augustinians dedicated to Saint George, whose presence is documented as early as 1231. However, this religious building does not appear in the register of churches in Goffredo da Bussero's Liber Notitiae Sanctorum Mediolani, which describes the religious context of the Milan area in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.

This monastery, which included a small church also dedicated to St. George, owned much of the arable land that extended beyond Legnano to Canegrate, San Vittore Olona, Villa Cortese and Dairago. The dedication of the convent and the small church to St. George may have been related to the cult of this saint, which may have been common in the surrounding countryside and which would then have influenced the choice of the monastery's dedication, or the opposite may have happened, that is, the popular cult of St. George would have spread through the dedication of the convent and the small church. It is likely that the presence of this monastery later led to the dedication of not only the castle but also a district of Legnano (the "Costa di San Giorgio") and the neighboring municipality of San Giorgio su Legnano to St. George. Hypotheses discarded by scholars consider instead that the reference to the saint derives from the municipality of San Giorgio su Legnano, which in the early 15th century was known as locus Sancti Georgi Plebis Parabiaghi Duc. Mlni ("locality of San Giorgio, of the parish of Parabiago, Duchy of Milan ").

The presence of ecclesiastical properties in Legnano is evidenced by documents dating back several centuries before the mentioned written deed of 1231. The first document that mentions archiepiscopal properties located in the village of Legnano dates back to October 23, 789, thus in Frankish times: it deals with an exchange of land located in Legnanello [ it ] between Pietro I Oldrati, archbishop of Milan, and the monastery of Sant'Ambrogio of Milan. This document, which is also the first that mentions the village, reads:

[...] curtem proprietatis nostre in Leunianello [...] [...] with our properties in Legnanello [...] — Lombard Diplomatic Codex, number LIV

Other evidence of the presence in Legnano of conspicuous landed properties belonging to the Church was the so-called " Braida Arcivescovile," which was a natural island formed by the Olona River and one of its secondary branches, the Olonella, located east of the modern basilica of San Magno and named so because it was owned by the archdiocese of Milan.

The convent of San Giorgio is passed on to the Della Torre family

The monks of the convent of San Giorgio, as shown in an ancient document, were subjected to harassment by some powerful people in the area (" magnates et potentes ") who had settled on land bordering those of the archbishopric. This situation was a consequence of the struggles between the Milanese archbishopric and some nobles, a war that was a direct consequence of the events that followed the Battle of Legnano (May 29, 1176): after the victory of Legnano, the medieval Lombard communes became enfranchised from imperial power and their entire population obtained the possibility of electing consuls. Previously, the government of cities was held by the bishop, the nobles and the upper class: in particular, Milan was governed by a lordship at the apex of which was the archbishop although, formally, the city had a republican form of government.

A proponent of the return of archiepiscopal supremacy over the city's government against the claims of the people was the archbishop of Milan Leone da Perego, who engaged in a struggle with some local nobles who, on the other hand, were part of the faction in favor of the new political situation that had arisen after the Battle of Legnano: the most important noble family that opposed Leone da Perego was the Della Torre family. In 1257, upon the death of Leone da Perego, it was not immediately clear who would prevail over the lordship of Milan: after a phase characterized by a heated dispute between the various factions, the family that managed to impose itself was eventually that of the Della Torre. Therefore, when Leone da Perego died, the Della Torre family began to occupy all the archiepiscopal properties in the Milanese countryside. The Milanese noble family also decided to take possession of the Milanese convent of San Giorgio, given its strategic location, taking advantage of the vacant archiepiscopal see. More generally, the Della Torre family in this area acquired several landed properties between Legnano and Dairago.

In order to avoid unpleasant consequences, and considering the political situation of the time, which was unstable and characterized by continuous wars, the friars decided to abandon the monastery by signing on October 14, 1261 a notarial deed of exchange with the brothers Raimondo, Napoleone and Francesco della Torre and their nephew Erecco, although it is not known whether of their own free will or forcibly obliged. The motivation for this choice, as can be read on this document, is described as follows:

[...] [The monks] are in the midst of perverse and powerful people residing in Legnano, so that they cannot live quietly without danger to their persons and the property of the Church [...]. [...] [The Church of St. George] has been abandoned and almost destroyed for more than 30 years because of the above-mentioned injustices [...].

— Deed of cession of the early convent and surrounding land to the Della Torre family

The main motivation for the local nobles to put great pressure on the monks lay in their claim to have a voice in the appointment of chapter members: the various lineages in fact coveted the chance to have their own relatives in this assembly that could have influenced the chapter's choices in their favor. As the documents show, the chapter of the monastery, at the time of its cession to the Della Torre family, consisted of the provost Ruggero de Quinque Viis, known as Cippus, and others by three clergymen, Guiscardo da Viggiù, Guido Lampugnani and Mainfredo Toppus.

On the other hand, the monks obtained 1,400 perches of fertile and well-watered land in Limito and the church of San Primo in Milan. Notably, the land, shortly before the exchange, was not in the possession of the Della Torre family and therefore was acquired for the occasion. The Della Torre family paid a considerable amount of money for the purchase of the land located in Limito: this confirms that this family considered the acquisition of the monastery, which was considered of significant strategic value, to be very important.

The monastery and surrounding lands were later acquired by the Della Torre and Lampugnani families, that is, the two families that had harassed the monks along with the inhabitants of the Meraviglia farmstead. The Della Torre family also acquired, through the same deed of exchange, some buildings in Legnano, two mills on the Olona River and several properties between the parishes of Dairago and Parabiago. In this way, the noble family of Milan carried out a real occupation of the land and the economy of the Alto Milanese.