Today's town is not the first one: the original settlement, Campese, lay further west. During the wars between Milan and Pavia its people moved little by little to the Motta, a de Campesis stronghold further east, until the old village stood empty. The name comes from the Gaulish motta, «raised ground»; the Motta was later bought by a scion of the Visconti, and the town took its name from that family, which held it as a fief. Its arms set the Visconti serpent beside two crossed swords, recalling the battles fought here. In 1786 the comune was assigned to the province of Pavia; today it belongs to the Metropolitan City of Milan.
Sante Caserio was born here, a peasants' son and a baker's boy in Milan; in 1894, in Lyon, he stabbed the French president Sadi Carnot to avenge the anarchist Auguste Vaillant, executed after Carnot refused him a pardon. Caserio claimed the act before the crowd, asked for no mercy at his trial and refused to name his comrades; he was guillotined that same year.
No events match these filters.
📅 Every year, on 24 June, a whole month of feasts with the Cherry Festival
Motta Visconti celebrates Saint John the Baptist on 24 June, in the church dedicated to him. Because of the patronal feast, the whole of June comes alive every weekend with stalls, concerts, dinners in the square and the Cherry Festival.
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 Motta Visconti, but an easy day trip away.
