CANNERO - HISTORY OF THE CASTLES OF CANNERO

HISTORY OF THE CASTLES OF CANNERO

The history of the Castles of Cannero through the drawings of FORTUNATO TAMI (1875-1942)

There is a very interesting story behing the ruins that emerge from the waters of the Lago Maggiore in front of the town of Cannero, at the edges of its territory and of the parochy of Cannobio. A history of blood, unheard of cruelty, massacres, pillaging and barbaric events. The bibliography of these events is a rich one and anyone can consult it.

We’re at the beginning at the XVth century. Duke Gian Galeazzo Visconti has recently died in Milan and under his predecessor the various factions are unleashed and disorder and crime of all kinds follow.

Among the rascalities of the Mazzarditi, strongly installed in the Castles of Cannero there was the frequent abduction of young damsels and brides killing those that refused to surrender to them. In such way they also abducted the bride of the Podestà of Cannobio Giacomo Pozzi from Vigevano, jurisconsult of value, in 1408.

In our area two families are fighting, the Rusconi for the ghibellina side and the Vitani for the guelfa side. The two families were based in Como but they operated in a vast area reaching as far as  Lago Maggiore.

At Cannobio they followed the guelfa side, or the Vitani, the families Mantelli, Cervetti, Zacchei and some others and almost the entire village of Cinzago, then very populated. Taking the ghibellina side the families of the Mazzironi, Poscolonna, Dal Sasso Carmine and almost all other families in Cannobio and Pieve.

It was in this period that in Cannobio there were five brothers of the Mazzardita family, more precisely: Giovanolo, Beltramino, Simonello, Petrolo also called Sinasso and Antonio called Carmagnola. These brothers were the sons of Lanfranco Mazzardi, butcher at Ronco of Cannobio.

The Mazzarditi. The rascalities of the Mazzarditi were extended on other shores of the Verbano persecuting the Guelfi that you/they took the name of “Vitani” in that region, imprisoning them, torturing them and killing them in varied ways, among which the most frequent, the lanciamento of the tied up victims and gagged from the Tower of the Castle. As always they felt happy him to assist to the tragic scene joking with sarcasms their victims. This happened during the apogee of their power among the years 1406-1414.

The shameful acts of these five brothers started around 1402 or 1403. Having taken Cannobio by force, not having a castle they arranged the tall and strong belltower with the nearby Palazzo della Ragione (Palace of reason) to function as a fortress. And so they began every sort of persecution against the guelfi of the city and of Pieve, looting, destroying and burning their homes, cutting their lives short and murdering many of the guelfa side. Furthermore many were imprisoned in the belltower and confronted with torture and violence.

When they wanted to take a nice house or terrain they would pretend to buy it from the owner even going so far as to pay them. However, after having concluded and signed the deed in presence of a notary they would have the seller captured by their henchmen and have the paid sum taken back from them. In case of resistance they would imprison and murder the unfortunate seller.

They frequently violated married and nubile women especially if they were part of a guelfa family. They even went so far as to kidnap the wife of the Podestà of Cannobio, a certain Giacomo Pozzi jurisconsult of Vigevano, they dragged her to S. Agata where they violated her and locked her in prison.

The Mazzarditi brothers then spread their tyranny and depravity to other centers of Lago Maggiore and took numrous prisoners to Cannobio, locked them in the belltower of San Vittore, made them undergo atrocious torments and kill them with a blow to the head with a bat, quarter them, skin them with the help of hired hands or hang them by the neck from trees at the edges of the roads so that passersby could see the bodies swaying in the wind. Many prisoners were drowned in the lake, others thrown in the river from the high bridge of the Agostana – where today the bridge of the Orrido of S. Anna is located – others still thrown into the lake from the Sasso of Carmine.

One day they killed ten, almost all from Ascona and the neighbouring areas, tied the bodies with a great rope and dragged them, bound together, through the streets of the town upto the shore of the lake and with a big rock tied to their necks threw them into the water. As luck would have the bodies of those unlucky souls were then found on the shore of Germignaga and were buried in a sacred place.

The Mazzarditi. To the tortures and the tortures of every kind that the Mazzarditi made to suffer to the enemies that fell in their hands, they united unheard of cruel refinements. This way after having made to suffer a long and penosa imprisonment to the Ghibellino Martino Mazzirono, rich and influential Borghigianos, wanted to witness to his/her extreme torture mocking him/it with banters and sarcasms. Per annum 1408.

To better dominate Cannobio and the nearby populations under their tyranny they had a castle built on a cliff che rose out of the water in front of the Cannero beach and was called the Castle of the Malpaga where Antonio also called Carmagnola would reside. The construction of the castle was left to the inhabitants of the area without any compensation. The stones were removed from the destroyed villages in the area.

All those who travelled through the area were forced to pay extremely high tolls or pay for their resistance with their lives. They extended their kidnappings to the areas of Angera and Arona and all the populations of the Verbano area were in danger of indescribable terror. The victims of those brigands ranged in the hundreds and every family was in mourning.

The Duke Filippo Maria Visconti in 1412 sent an army of roughly 500 men against them under the command of Giacomo Lunati, captain and nobleman from Milan, and after a long siege the Malpaga Castle surrendered and the Mazzarditi brothers obtained as a condition to save their lives and keep their goods. The surrender came in march of 1414.

In 1459 a trial begun, started by Pietro and Giovanni Mantelli, against Giovanni Pietro and Giovan Matteo Mazzardi, sons of one of the five Mazzarditi brothers who brought so much destruction into the lives if the guelfi people of Cannobio.

In october 1519 as desired by count Lodovico Borromeo, lord of Cannobio, on the ruins of the Malpaga the construction of a new castle started, completed in 1521 and named “Vitaliana” by the first name of its illustrious tribe.

The Mazzarditi. Among the varieties of tortures of every kind to which the Mazzarditi submitted him unhappy that fell in their hands to terrorize the coast populations and to give a sign of their power they applied of frequent also to the hanging on spar fixed to the tall one of the Tower. This torture was also reserved to his/her/their brothers belonging Mantelli to wealthy and influential family of Cannobio and their dead bodies you/they were left statements for six days. Per annum 1409.

And here are the latin verses and words which could be read on a marble plate inserted into a wall on the eastern side of the castle:

Ingredere et specta, mi hospes, tecumque revolve,

quae sit in adversis virtus, quaecumque rigenti

iuncta vides saxo, factum laudante fideli

Helvetio, mediis fortunae in fluctibus egit

Vitalianorum Ludovicus vera propago.

Anno sal. MDXXI

Solent non ignavi homines apta suis studiis loca dilignter esquirre; hunc idei sibi Luduvicus Borromeus elegit, ut fortunae tela vitaret. Facta sunt fundamenta 1519, VI Octobris ante diem divae Justinae Vitalianae ob memoriam antiquae originis.

A second inscription is found on the western side on a marble slate and this inscription is quoted by Leandri and Morigia. Here’s the text:

Vitaliana vocor Verbani turris in undis

Edita, primaevae nomina stirpis habens.

Me Luduvicus sic Borromaeus in altum

Extulit, ut pateat Vitalianus Honos:

Simque locus fidis semper patefactus amicis;

Hostibus at nostris sim moribunda lues.

The following words are added to the verses in latin, which can be understood by anyone with a basic knowledge of foreign languages:

Si duplicis cognominis causam forte requiris, lector,

Scito illustrem Borromaeorum Comitum prosapiam

A Vitaliano Matavino olim Italiae Rege et Divae

Justinae genitore suam traxisse originem.

Vale et quod Domino turris auguralis id tibi veniat.

The Mazzarditi. His/her brides and the damsels that the Mazzarditi succeeded in abducting didn't have that to choose among to surrender to their ignoble desires or to die. Among those that preferred the death to the outrage there was a beautiful and virtuoso belonging damsel to the influential Family Mazzirono which was killed by the Mazzardito Giovanolo after having sustained a tenacities struggle barricaded behind the furniture of the room. Per annum 1409.

In 1523 the peace of this new castle was broken by the noise of weaponry. In fact Anchise Visconte, valorous captain and governor Lago Maggiore, by order of Duke Francesco II Sforza had lain siege to the castle. The motives for these events were due to the fact that Count Lodovico Borromeo had been expelled from the State of Milan because he was considered a rebel for supporting the king of France Francesco I who was warring at that time with the Sforza. It should be noted that at that time Borromeo was not the only lord supporting the king of France.

The siege carried on until 1524 but yielded no results for captain Anchise Visconte.

In fact the swiss, friends of count Borromeo and king Francesco I of France, sustained the sieged castle with food and weapons taking advantage of the darkness of the night and the strong winds which kept those laying siege, not very practical with the heavy weather and currents on the lake, from interrupting the aiding operations of the swiss.

But not just the friends of neighbouring Switzerland had come to assist Count Lodovico Borromeo. Also the inhabitants of Cannero more than once gave their assistance to those under siege. Historians of the time in fact told of the fact that Anchise Visconte, before breaking off the siege on the heavily supplied castle, had almost burned all the lands of Cannero as a ferocious punishment against those populations who had dared to assist the castle.

The Mazzarditi. The echo of the cruelties of the Mazzarditi struck again far him, and the Duke Filippo Maria Visconti of Milano, in front of the cry of pain of the Verbano anelante revenge and liberty, sent Giovanni Lonati with 500 soldiers, that succeeded in capturing the Mazzarditi and their satellites after a tenacious siege of the Castles. Per annum 1414. The historians are discordant on the end that was reserved to the Mazzarditi. However a decree of 16 July 1429 of the Duke of Milano would try that they had it saves the life.

From this castle on the morning of the 10th of january 1522 the Borromeo counts departed for Cannobio to observe and worship the Miracle of Cannobio which had been occurring since two days in the osteria Tomaso Zacchei. The counts themselves were present during one of the many miraculous showings in the humble osteria.

And now of these castles we see nothing but ruins if little more. In fact for too many years the constructions have been abandoned to time and the elements. It’s a real shame that the cliffs that rise out of the clear Verbano waters, in one of the most charming areas of our beautiful Italy, remain abandoned, silent, inhospitable.

***

(Taken from:“Bollettino Storico per la Provincia di Novara” A. Zammaretti - Anno LII n. 1, 1961)