Villincino is the fortified village of Erba that belonged to the Carpani, allies of the Visconti: a few cobbled lanes, houses of exposed stone with brick insets, a tower with a 14th-century mullioned window and the Pusterla, the tower that marked the way out of the village. A ruin remains of the castle; the village is visited on foot.
History
The fortification was a so-called «castello di borgo». According to Wikipedia in the 10th century it was a military castellum defending the territory from Hungarian raids, and in the communal age a logistic base in the disputes between Como and Milan. The Comune of Erba describes it as an active centre between the 13th and 14th centuries: it belonged to the Carpani, and their last descendant lived in the house called Stallazzo, in the nearby piazzetta Prina.
After the battle of Desio, in 1277, when the castles were demolished, that of Villincino too was abandoned; around 1500 it became the seat of religious orders, and Camminacittà recalls that in the 16th century part of the fortress, the present casa Guenzati-Rivolta, was a convent, whose friars added a portico in the inner courtyard. In 1810, in application of the edict of Saint-Cloud, the building was sold at auction and went to a Casati. Today, writes the Comune, of the castle, listed among the national monuments, only a ruin remains.
What to see
The tower in piazza Torre. Against casa Guenzati-Rivolta, where Saint John Bosco stayed in the 19th century, lean the remains of the massive tower that gives the square its name: about 6 metres on each side and 8 high, in large squared blocks of local stone. The doorway is topped by a pointed-arch mullioned window with a small column of white Candoglia marble and a leaf capital, dated by Camminacittà to the mid-14th century. Beside the entrance a small marker stone with a bronze plaque, placed by the people of Erba in 1928, bears the inscription «Posuerunt me custodem».
The lane. Passing under the tower you enter via Contrada Villincino, among old houses and cobbles furrowed by two central stone guides. After some seventy metres you leave under the Pusterla, a tall slender tower of exposed stone, with a granite doorway, two small pointed windows and a rustic loggia; it was once the western wing of the castle and was restored in the second half of the 20th century.
The Stallazzo and the Carpani houses. In piazza Prina number 5 keeps 14th-century terracotta windows and, under the portico, a coffered ceiling with painted panels showing portraits of members of the Carpani family, badly damaged, which Camminacittà attributes to a master close to the court of Ludovico il Moro; for the Comune the coffers are 15th-century. The FAI instead writes that the Stallazzo was probably a convent of nuns: the sources do not agree on its origin.
The wash house. Leaving the village, after some forty metres on the right, a building of exposed stone open with arches closed by iron gates houses the old two-basin wash house.
On the walls of some buildings contemporary works by the Gruppo Artistico Erbese are displayed.
On the route
Villincino is the heart of the second stage of the Camminacittà route of Erba (670 metres and about 15 minutes, up to piazza Prepositurale), after Sant’Eufemia. The full walk is in the Erba on foot itinerary.
Practical information
- The village is a core of lived-in houses: you walk its streets, while some courtyards are private (Camminacittà notes a wrought-iron gate in front of a private courtyard and a private-property small square).
- The streets of the village are via Carpani, piazza Torre, piazza Prina and contrada Villincino (Viaggiare in Brianza).
- Camminacittà notes cobbled paving, thresholds and steps.
- Nearby: the church of Sant’Eufemia and Villa Majnoni.
