Fornovo San Giovanni

Fornovo lies today in the Gera d'Adda, in the province of Bergamo, but its history is Cremonese and Milanese. What decided the matter was a piece of digging: the fosso bergamasco, cut to mark the border between the Venetian and the Milanese dominions, passed north of the village and left it on Milan's side, inside the county of Cremona. Earlier still the first feudal lord had been the bishop of Cremona, and for centuries bishops, counts and archbishops squabbled here: the Gisalbertini were defeated in 1019, and in 1227 Milanese troops led by the counts of Camisano attacked the village again, at the risk of excommunication.

That double belonging ended up in the coat of arms: the field joins the gold of Bergamo and the silver of Milan, with the red lion of the Secco d'Aragona, who were feudal lords here. The name comes from the Latin Forum Novum, the new settlement born with the Roman centuriation, and the first document naming the village is of 831. The church of San Giovanni Battista arose, the sources say, on a pagan place of worship dedicated to Jupiter; the bare brick façade is attributed to Pellegrino Tibaldi. Three thousand three hundred and nineteen inhabitants.