Torre Beretti e Castellaro

The comune was created in 1928 by joining two villages that are not even at the same height: Torre Beretti, which is the seat of the council, lies on the alluvial plain, while Castellaro de' Giorgi stands higher up, on the edge of the terrace of the older, diluvial plain. Torre Beretti at first was called simply Torre, developed rather late compared with the other centres of the Lomellina, and took its present name from its lords, the Beretta della Torre. Following the fortunes of Frascarolo, in 1441 it was enfeoffed to the Birago of Milan and in 1522 to the imperial chancellor Mercurino Arborio di Gattinara, who was also feudatory of Sartirana; from that moment it followed the fortunes of Sartirana and remained with the Arborio di Gattinara until the sixteen hundreds.

The most curious thing, though, is a third village that nobody could see. Cassina de' Bossi was a settlement entirely indistinguishable from Torre Beretti: it occupied its western blocks and its eastern ones, while Torre Beretti made up the middle of the village. The houses stood side by side, and yet the two had different histories — Cassina de' Bossi followed rather the fortunes of Castellaro and of Frascarolo, belonged feudally to the Varesini, and in 1675 was sold to the Canobbio. It was joined to Torre Beretti in 1806 and definitively in 1818. For centuries, in short, a single row of houses was two comuni: the middle belonged to one master, the two ends to another. Of all this there remains today a village of the south-western Lomellina, not far from the left bank of the Po, and, on the third Sunday of June, a fair where every sort of grilled skewer is eaten.