The name comes from a castle, raised between the end of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth on the edge of the alluvial terrace that marks the right bank of the Serio, north of Crema. Of that castle what remains is not a ruin but a villa: in the second half of the fifteenth century the counts Griffoni of Sant'Angelo bought it, and at the end of the seventeenth they decided to turn it into a luxurious residence. The design is attributed to Giovanni Ruggeri, an architect much in demand among the Milanese bourgeoisie, who made of it a patrician villa of rococo taste with a wide Italian garden. The castle, though, has not vanished entirely: under the villa are its foundations, and a tower still stands, along with the moat that flanks the southern and western sides of the property.
The family that did all this had come from outside. Its founder, Matteo Grifoni of Sant'Angelo in Vado, was a condottiero, and he reached Crema in 1459; within a short time the Griffoni had become one of the richest and most powerful families of the area. They held the villa until 1852, when the line died out: it passed then to the Sanseverino Vimercate and afterwards to the knight Bernardino Branca. The village, meanwhile, has grown around the villa, and this can still be seen today: the built-up centre arranges itself around the building, which remains its chief piece of architecture. The territory is crossed by the old Padana superiore road and by the road to Offanengo; for the rest there are fields.
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📅 Every year, on the last Sunday of August
On the last Sunday of August Castel Gabbiano, a municipality of 455 inhabitants in the province of Cremona, celebrates its patron Sant'Alessandro.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Castel Gabbiano, but an easy day trip away.
