Castellanza straddles the Olona, which cuts its territory in two, and for centuries the two banks were separate villages: to the east Castegnate, whose -ate ending points to a Celtic settlement and which appears in a diploma of Henry III in 1045; to the west Castellanza, probably born as a stronghold between two lost hamlets, Cogorezio and Sponzano, first recorded in 1361 in a parchment granting an income to a priest living there. The plague of the seventeenth century left five hundred souls alive.
The two were merged into a single comune on the first of May 1869, and the coat of arms tells the story: a two-arched bridge crosses the river and joins the tower of Castellanza to the chestnut tree of Castegnate. The nineteenth century brought cotton mills along the water, the Cantoni first among them; once the textile industry closed, the Carlo Cattaneo university moved into the old mill site in 1991.
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📅 Every year, on 31 January; in June the Palio de la Castellantia is held among the town's eight districts
Castellanza celebrates Saint Julius on 31 January, in the church dedicated to him; the town also hosts the Palio de la Castellantia, first held on 5 and 6 June 2010, contested between the town's eight districts, including the one named after San Giulio himself.
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 Castellanza, but an easy day trip away.
