Paderno Franciacorta

At Paderno the families were divided for centuries into two lists. On one side the Originari, the original families — Artini, Bracchi, Facchi, Ferrari, Mensi, Paderni, Patuzzi, Pitozzi, Trainini, Zanola and others — on the other the Forestieri, the outsiders, recorded together with the village they had come from: the Colosio from Passirano, the Franchi from Monticelli Brusati, the Guarneri from Ospitaletto, the Martinelli from Provaglio d'Iseo, the Peli from Bornato, the Verzelletti from Calino. Many of those surnames are still here, and the village of origin has stayed written beside them like a marginal note nobody ever rubbed out.

Three thousand six hundred and ninety-nine inhabitants in the province of Brescia: it is the smallest municipality in the Franciacorta. In the sixteenth century the passage of French troops devastated it, and the chronicles say that besides the soldiers some 150 women and peasants were killed: of the nearly 500 inhabitants there had been before, 52 remained. In the sanctuary of the Madonna del Castello is kept an image of the Virgin and Child called the Madonna of the Milk, which is said to have been kept inside the castle by its owners.