Calcio

For more than four hundred years Calcio was a place where no taxes were paid. It lay on the border between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan, and together with Pumenengo, Torre Pallavicina, Urago and part of the lands of Cividate it formed a free zone called the Calciana: exempt from tribute, with an administration of its own and, as in all border lands, a flourishing trade in contraband. The fief lasted from 1366 until 1797, when the arrival of the French swept it away.

On the night between the sixth and the seventh of July 1191 the Cremonese built a wooden bridge here, over the Oglio, to take the Brescians by surprise. The attack was succeeding when trumpets and drums sounded behind them: it was only the small garrison of Rudiano, but the men of Bergamo and Cremona believed it to be the army of Milan and threw themselves towards the bridge, which gave way under the weight. Ten thousand died, drowned or cut down on the bank, and what carried the news of the rout down to the Cremona country was the water of the river, turned red.