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History of Varese
Near Malpensa there is Varese, at the foot of two mountains: Santa Maria del Monte, well known as Sacro Monte, characterized by the Stations of the Cross chapels that reach the very top where a sanctuary is located; Campo Dei Fiori, seat of an astronomical observatory, and weather station of the Pre-Alps Geophysical Centre.
The birth of the town dues its origin to the strategic position that it had in past centuries: the two transapennine roads, towards Parma and Tortona, across the Pass of Cento Croci and Bocco, intersected here.
The roads leaving from the coast, through Varese territory, entered easily the Po Valley so that a trading market started in this territory.
A Byzantine settlement , the ruins of which were found under the castle, existed in the Varese area of today.
The presence of Lavagna Counts in Varese territory dates from the beginning of XI century; in 1161 they had the investiture of it by the Emperor Federico I.
At the end of XII century, two branches of Lavagna Counts -Fieschi and Pinelli families- settled in Cassego from where they began to disforest ,to build wooden constructions, to seed and breed livestock.
The conflicts between the two families began immediately when Fieschi family threw Pinelli family out of Cassego and forced it to seek refuge in Carbello where it built a tower called “Pinelli Tower”.
Later, according to an agreement, the two families divided up the territory.
However Fieschi family came to power in the Upper Val di Vara in the end of XIII century.
So that it decided to consolidate its presence founding a village, that had to be the heart of the whole region life, and drew up a settlement project that provided for brick houses exactly all the same.
Fieschi family had the feud till 1386, when Antoniotto Adorno, Genoese Doge, bought it from the Count Carlo.
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