Cerro Maggiore

Until 1862 the village was simply Cerro; the adjective was added to tell it apart from the other Cerros — Cerro al Lambro among them — and to state that this one was larger. The name comes from the Latin cerrus, the Turkey oak, and the coat of arms says it again: on a blue field, an uprooted oak in its natural colours. Heralds call that canting arms.

The Boretta sanctuary carries the name of the man who owned the land where the first chapel went up in 1500. When Cardinal Federico Borromeo called there in 1617 he noticed the bell tower was missing and ordered in writing that one be raised at once; the church got it thirty-six years later. In the Capuchin friary, meanwhile, the body of Benito Mussolini was hidden after being brought from Milan, and stayed until 1957.