Baranzate first appears in a Lombard codex of 994 under the name Balanziate, and for most of its history it was a frazione of Bollate. Independence came twice: a regional law made it a comune in 2001, but in 2003 the Constitutional Court annulled everything, because only the residents of the frazione had voted in the referendum; a second law, in 2004, settled the separation for good. The prison on its territory is still called the Bollate prison: when it opened the place was a frazione, and the name was never changed.
Before the factories there was silk: the Sforza brought mulberry growing here, and silkworm rearing lasted into the early twentieth century. The mulberry ended up on the town's arms, uprooted and with ten green leaves on gold, under a blue chief whose merlons trace the profile of a cogwheel, the industry that followed. From the same century comes the Glass Church, built in 1957 by Angelo Mangiarotti and Bruno Morassutti and opened by Cardinal Montini.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Baranzate
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Baranzate, but an easy day trip away.