Briosco

Briosco lies among the hills of Brianza, along the Lambro, though nothing certain predates the year 1000: the village, perhaps of Lombard origin, grew from scattered farmsteads around a fortified center guarding the valley. In 1289 Goffredo da Bussero counted four churches here — San Vittore, Sant'Ambrogio, San Gregorio and San Maurizio —, and for centuries it answered to the pieve of Agliate. Older still are the mills at Peregallo: the place is recorded from 1237 among the possessions of Milan's Monastero Maggiore.

In 1898 Briosco made national news when Catholic newspapers spoke up for local farming families threatened with eviction by landowners. A paper mill built by the Lambro in the mid-19th century and run by Lebon e Compagni later passed to the Villa family, who ran it until 1975; in the hamlet of Fornaci clay was shaped by hand into bricks and tiles, a craft that continues at the Artistica Riva kiln, founded between the 1930s and 1940s by the Rebattini couple for their daughter Artemisia. The coat of arms bears a castle, recalling the belief in an early medieval stronghold, and two stars for the hamlets of Capriano and Fornaci.