A PROVINCE TO BE EXPLORED - Visita Milano

Vimercate
Palazzo Trotti, now home to the Vimercate municipality
Out of interest
Illustrious locals
Just how thriving the city was in the Middle
Ages and the Renaissance can be
gauged from its ‘illustrious sons’. Pinamonte
da Vimercate (1120-1187) is often
credited with being one of the key members
of the l eague of Lombard co m-
munes that fought Frederick Barbarossa
and was one of the authors of the Peace
of Costanza (1183). In 1171/72 he was
Consul of Milan and then, in 1177,
Podesta of Bologna. Stefanardo da Vimercate
lived in the 13th century. This historian,
poet, chronicler and praise singer
for the adventures of Ottone Visconti in
his poem Liber de gestis in civitate
Medio lanensi was also a Dominican
monk and became a professor of moral
theology and canon law in 1289. The following
year, he was appointed Prior of
the convent of S. Eustorgio in Milan, a
role he held until 1292. Gian G iacomo
Caprotti (ca. 1480-1524) was born in
Oreno and known as Salaino or Salai. He
“Gamba del legn” led to Milan; 10 years later, the
Monza-Trezzo-Bergamo line came into existence.
In 1929, Vimercate was joined by Oreno con Velasca
and Ruginello con Oldaniga (these were formerly
autonomous municipalities). During the R e-
sistance, t he 1 03rd d etachment o f t he G aribaldi
Brigade, under the command of Iginio R ota, distinwas
a favoured student of Leonardo da
Vinci and followed him to France. However,
thus far no painting has been undeniably
attributed to him. The Risorgimento
involved some people from the
Vimercate area: Gaetano de Castillia
(1794-1870), who was jailed in Spielberg
(1824), exiled to the United States
(1835), and became a Senator of the
Italian Kingdom; and Francesco Vigo Pellizzari
(1836-1863), who joined an Italian
band of revolutionaries (Cacciatori delle
Alpi) in 1859 and was part of Garibaldi’s
famous thousand men, where he was
Benedetto Cairoli’s lieutenant and one of
Garibaldi’s commanders, before losing
his life on the Mentana battlefield. Finally,
Antonio Banfi (1886-1957), an illustrious
philosopher, university lecturer, was
the creator and first editor of the journal
Studi filosofici as well as being a founding
member of Milan’ s Casa della Cultura
(House of Culture).
Monza and its province
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