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Il Masso avello ( II sec. d.C.) |
You pass from prehistory when the territory, rich in gare, gave hospitality to groups of nomadic hunters living in caves or wooden huts, to a history marked by the flow of Celtic peoples and, probably, by the arrival of Greek colonists who began to plough the slopes of Mount Grona and were brought there by the Romans of Julius Caesar. At the end of the XIXth c. our villages, built almost all after the year 1000 on the mountains cleared from woods and encircled by cyclopean walls in order to create fertile terraces useful for farming, looked still like real fortresses. Generally, there were three entrances to the villages: one road came from the nearby village, the second one led, at the opposite side, to another village, and the third led to the mountains. The entrance of the village, between two houses, was blocked every night by wooden doors (two meters high) and a thick bar in order to prevent hungry wolves and criminals from entering it. The streets of the villages were narrow and dark. They were cobbled, paved only where there were flagstones (piode) at disposal, with a side canal for the sewage from the stalls when the cattle were there. The houses were placed one near the other, were built with river rocks and little lime, and had flagstone roofs sometimes covered with pressed straw. The church, the school and the main houses were plastered and showed decorations and religious frescoes. |
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Nowadays,
in spite of the inevitable improvments as far as the road network
and the urban structures are concerned, many of these ancient
values have fortunately survived as symbols of the past. The coats
of arms on some of the portals showing the date of teh construction
and the symbol of the family, remind us of the most important
clans (in Plesio: Saglio, Bertarelli, Fiocchi, Petazzi; in Barna:
Bolza, Polti-Petazzi, Manzi; in Ligomena: Todeschi and in Logo
Carnevali) and of the various historical periods (from the XIVth
to the XIXtn c.) characterized by the presence of the Spaniard,
the French and the Austrians. The churches then, with marvellous
inlaid altars and polychromic paintings, madonnari's fescoes,
the oratories and numerous chapels along the old muletracks, testify
the great faith of the inhabitants. You can also admire the treasures
moulded in the rock: the prehistorical "coppelle" and the Roman
tomb of the VIth c. in Breglia, the "masso avello" in Calveseglio
(IInd c.) and the "Column of the Plague" with the date 1649 engraved
on it, placed on the church-square of Plesio. Worth of mention
are also the wash-houses and the public fountains of last century
that you can find still alive in all the hamlets, unique "tokens"
of a historic period, ready to face the third millenium.
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Blasone da cui è stato ricavato lo stemma di Plesio |
