Casto

On the coat of arms of Casto stands Vulcan, the blacksmith god. It is not an affectation: for centuries the waters of the Nozza torrent drove the forges where agricultural and household tools were beaten out, and the village, at the meeting of the streams that come down from Comero and Alone, grew up around iron. Today it does the same trade under other names: handle factories, foundries of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, and craftsmen specialised in knives and blades. There is even a Park of the Forges.

Alongside iron, though, in the Middle Ages cloth and silk were worked here too, by well-off families such as the De Benedictis, later known as the Montini. In 1385 Casto entered the Quadra of the Valle Sabbia and with the whole valley ended up under Venice. The churches of Casto, Malpaga, Alone and Comero were subsidiaries of the old pieve of Mura, and only in time became parishes. The name of the village, in all probability, comes from the chestnut tree.