Rogeno

One of the characteristic features of Alta Brianza are its rogge, small quiet-flowing man-made canals that are fed by a large watercourse and used for irrigation and to power watermills and small hydro-electric plants.

Rogeno gets its name from one of these canals around which the town grew, house by house, over time. Overlooking the southern bank of Lake Pusiano, during the Italian Renaissance it was the stage for several crucial events. Right here in fact, in the home of the Negri brothers, today’s Villa Isacco, on the night of 24 October 1847, the Lombardy patriots met up to plan the insurrection that was the Five Days of Milan.

Those taking part included the Costante brothers, Felipe and Giuseppe Gerosa, also from Rogeno, who then followed Garibaldi on his most important expeditions. The Gerosas were at the head of many of Garibaldi’s brigades, leading forays and always standing out for their courage and boldness.

Other famous people from Rogeno include the Villa brothers, Antonio and Giovanni Battista, naturalist scientists who founded the Italian Society of Natural Sciences. They were the ones who, among other achievements, started up the earliest geological studies of the Brianza area.

Rogeno today has about 3,000 inhabitants and is made up of four villages: Maglio, Maggiolino, Calvenzana, and Casletto.