Vedeseta

The first inhabitants probably came down from the Valsassina, some say shepherds after pasture, others refugees after an enclosed valley. In 1237, after the defeat at Cortenuova, the fleeing Milanese were taken in by Pagano della Torre, who was given the lordship of the valley in return: from then on Taleggio sided with the Torriani, as Guelphs, and Vedeseta with the archbishop, as Ghibellines. In the fifteenth century the split became a state border, since Venice took Bergamo while Vedeseta stayed with the Duchy of Milan, and the boundary stones, the termenü, are still in place: today they mark the line between the two municipalities.

Only Napoleon, in 1797, put the two villages under the same flag. The tie with Milan lasted two centuries longer: Vedeseta remained a parish of the Ambrosian diocese until 1995, when Cardinal Martini and Bishop Amadei signed its transfer to Bergamo. Meanwhile the village was emptying, from 766 inhabitants in 1921 to little more than two hundred, and it stayed on its feet with what it knows how to do: milk from brown alpine cows, raw-milk Taleggio and Strachitunt, two protected-designation cheeses.