About us
These historical passages have been quoted from "Memorie storiche di Appiano Gentile" L. Clerici, Milano 1926 and from the memoirs of my Grandmother Caterina Bernasconi de Luca.In the residential neighbourhood of Appiano Gentile a set of buildings arises, comprised of various structures dating back to different periods, once belonging to several families and today reunited in one single estate.
The oldest and more historical building is the baroque house with its classical tower and wrought iron balconies once owned by the Lucini, an aristocratic family originally from Como which distinguished itself in Milan in the XVII and XVIII century. They were holders of a number of feuds, Gudo Visconti and Osnago amongst them. The main part of this structure is a long wing in a North-South axis, the rooms of which are accessed by a splendid elliptical stairway with corbel stone steps and a wrought iron banister. To the south of this, further buildings of lesser manufacture, formed a small courtyard with porticos on two sides; downhill from here, where the Silk Mill once stood, the gardens were to be laid out.
More recent and built in the Eighteen hundreds in neo-classical style, is the adjoining house of the Frigerio Cavadini who numbered among the first silk manufacturers in the area. The main part of this house recaptures, to the North, the alignment of the Lucini House with a porticoed wing on the ground floor then turns to the West to form an L shape. A curious anecdote refers to the exterior façade of the house: this is not plastered and shows, in between the large cornices and window frames, the bricks and stones (locally called “boce”) in its compound. This expedient enabled the builders to elude a tax on luxury constructions. In the XIX century Mr Cavadini bought the Lucini House and subsequently started the Silk Mill which stood in the southern courtyard. The union of the Baroque and the Eighteenth century Houses created a U shaped space facing west which gives way to the park, slowly meandering and gently rolling down towards the village’s main square.
Noemi Cavadini, thus named despite being a male, had a remarkable personality and was orphaned at the tender age of 12. For this reason he had to abandon his studies very early on and start working to provide for his aristocratic but impoverished family (his Mother was a descendant of the noble Carcano family). He married young Nina Frigerio who brought in dowry a small silk mill which Noemi successfully expanded. He soon set up more silk mills in the surrounding area and became one of the most important silk manufacturers in the region.
The present heirs, the Filotto, Stella and Bernasconi de Luca families, live in the Eighteenth century part of the house whilst the Silk Mill and the Tower were pulled down in the Seventies and the old Lucini House, having endured the ups and downs of family life, is all but neglected and abandoned.