Caslino d'Erba

The «d'Erba» that Caslino carries in its name was attached to it by the Savoy government in 1882, to tell it apart from another Caslino in the same province of Como; but with Erba the village never had much to do. The real bond is with Canzo: together with Canzo it broke away from the pieve of Incino to form first the Squadra di Canzo, in 1346, and then the smaller Corte di Casale in 1403, of which it was the heart until the Napoleonic suppression. The name, on the other hand, probably comes from the Lombard caslin, «little castle», and from there come also the surnames Caslini and Gaslini; the first record is in charters of 882, where the place is called Castrum Linii.

Every September the Festa delle Capre, the goat festival, is held here, and the goats are no recent invention: around 600 BC the Gauls settled here, who wore goat skin and wool and made excellent cheese, and some think that goat rearing at Caslino is as old as the village itself. A little outside the built-up area, on the slope of Monte Barzaghino, stands the sanctuary of the Madonna di San Calogero: its Romanesque bell tower, a national monument, goes back to the tenth century. The coat of arms, meanwhile, has never been formally granted, and its gold bezants recall the Roman coins found among the archaeological finds.