A PROVINCE TO BE EXPLORED - Visita Milano

Vimercate
idential purposes. Villa Casanova lies on what was
once Contrada S. Lorenzo (now via Garibaldi) and
is a late -Neoclassical building constructed in the
mid-19th century. Opposite this villa stands another
v illa, n amely Villa Visconti G argantini P iatti,
whose construction work started in 18 05 using a
project by Pollack.
The old Corsia di S. Rocco – now known as via
Cavour – was the main road linking Milan to the
ford at Trezzo sull’Adda. Along it lies the S. Rocco
bridge, across the Molgora River (symbol of Vimercate),
with its two towers and a gate. The ruins of a
Roman bridge (3rd cent. AD) were the basis for the
Moriano gate (on the city side), built in the late 12th
century and completed with the addition of a tower
in the 14th century. The outer tower is from the
same period, although some later work on the exterior
gave it a 16th-century appearance. This whole
series of structures is one of the b est surviving examples
of medieval civil and military architecture. It
is also the only medieval gate that survived the demolition
work of the 18th century, although one span
of the bridge was removed.
There are other notable buildings along via
Cavour: the Oratory of S. Antonio Abate , from the
13th century but redone, inside, in baroque style and
conserving some 14th/15th-century frescoes; the
19th-century Palazzo Mandelli; and a 15th-century
‘noble mansion’. The list of original buildings from
the 15th century includes the tower-house on via
The S. Rocco bridge
Villa Sottocasa
Portrait of Elisabetta
Sottocasa (Mosè Bianchi,
1874)
Monza and its province
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