Campogalliano

The name is an adaptation of «field of the Gauls»: the Boii settled here, near the Secchia, and after the Romans had subdued the Celtic peoples of this plain the territory ended up in Cisalpine Gaul. A real village, however, only formed in the sixteenth century, around a castrum wanted by the cadet branch of the Este of San Martino: nothing is left of the castle, but its site is the park of the Montagnole, where the lie of the ground still lets the moat be made out. The strangest chapter is an administrative one. The Este of San Martino held the jurisdiction from 1501 until the extinction of the house, in 1752; and on the twelfth of April 1753 the Ducal Chamber ceded the territories of San Martino in Rio and Campogalliano to the marquise Teresa Sfondrati, widow of the last prince, for a term of three years. The contract was renewed in 1756 in favour of her daughter, renewed again in 1758 and extended to the end of 1767; then the land went back to the Chamber.

The town also has three things of its own that you would not expect to find together. Since 1860 weighing scales have been made here, so much so that Campogalliano is called the town of the scales and has a museum that displays measuring instruments and tells the story of the trade; the Coop Bilanciai was founded in 1949. In 1987, on land beside the Brenner motorway, the Bugatti Automobili works was built, later closed and for some time now reopened to guided visits. And here is the seat of the Biblioteca Enigmistica Italiana, founded by Giuseppe Panini and given over entirely to word games and riddles, reserved to its members.