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Nowadays archaeological traces in the Chignolo territory are
scarcely to be found out, although the village is comprised in a
geographical district which has given, throughout history, several
witnesses dating back to prehistory, Classicism and the Middle Ages.
Anyway, there are traces of mentions related to the Chignolo
territory starting from the 7th century A.D.
Nevertheless, when historical texts become more explicit, we are
faced with written tales which, starting from 1112, refer more and
more often to the name of Chignolo in acts regarding the so called "decime"
or sales of land. One of such kind of texts clearly refers to a
settlement named Chignolo, which boasts a fortified castle standing
on a not very high hill overlooking the plain below.
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The 12th century sees the coming of the "Umiliati"
(humiliated), which were to leave an uncancellable sign in the
inhabitants' mind. The humiliated made themselves known where
the Benedictine Monasticism failed since incapable to face the
decay of the feudal system, the development of the city states
and all the problems they brought about: the growth of new
social orders and of new poverty.
The houses of the Humiliated were centres which melted work to
spirituality: on one hand they were forerunners of the work of
spinning mills and on the other hand bound to an absolute
religious commitment. |
The name of Venturino, who got blessed and lived in the first half
of the 14th century, became a piece of Chignolo history, since the
descendants of the Ceresoli family of the Chignolo branch claimed
that he belonged to their family. Actually the Ceresoli family kept
an important relic (the index finger of his right hand) belonging to
Venturino for centuries, which was then given in 1960 to St. Peter's
Church in Chignolo, where it is still kept.
The crucial years for Chignolo history are those between the
fourteenth and fifteenth century: then the Chignolo community was
achieving his own identity. On the one hand the country planning and
the balance in the division of land (for the first time the names of
Roncalli, Rota and Locatelli appeared) were being defined, on the
other hand the cruel clashes between Guelphs and Ghibellines were
involving and devastating the territory of the so-called island.
These dramatic events led to the conquest of the Chignolo castle by
the Guelph Galeazzo Gonzaga. After a confused and stormy period
followed by a short dominion of Milan, Bergamo passed under the
leadership of Venice which had the towers of various noble
residences knocked down: even the Castle of Chignolo couldn't do
anything but undergoing the same destiny.
Between the 15th and the 16th century the settlements definitively
settled down and urban structures moved where you can find now the
so called historical centre.
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Even the land transfer to new families was a sign of
historical and social changes. A new group of families settled
down in Chignolo not for political but for economical reasons,
which, together with a rising brand new middle-class
awareness, brought about in the 16th century the idea that
moving to Chignolo could be a safe investment especially
thanks to its agricultural development which has characterized
it till today.
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The Church had a prominent importance throughout the 17th and 18th
centuries; witnesses are the four Churches which were built
throughout years: the first parish Church of St. Peter in Campis
stood where now the Cemetery is. St. Mary's was the second parish
Church and stood near the present Oratory; the third parish Church
is the present Sanctuary; the current Parish Church is the New
Church, the entry of which opens to the main village square. Between
the eighteenth and nineteenth century the new cultural and secular
awareness of the Enlightenment was born and immediately spread in
the most important centres, even though it found it hard to
penetrate the smaller communities where, on the opposite, the
congregation came nearer the Parish which ended up by getting the
only cultural centre. As a matter of fact, the many priests in the
Parishes devoted themselves to literacy deeds, through which also
the clergy thought was conveyed. On the one hand the religious
consciousness took stable roots in the parish environment which
depended on Post-Tridentine schemes but around which a devotional
life and a deep social practice developed; on the other hand the
meeting points of civil life consolidate more slowly, even because
of the rapid changes which were taking place.
With the decay of the Republic of Veneto and the coming of the
French people, we were faced to the attempt of rationalising the
political-administrating institutions and adapting them to the
territory. So the old "quadra" was replaced by new divisions, such
as departements, districts and commons as per French model.
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On the 9th July 1897 the Serio department was founded which,
in the following February, assumed its definitive form
including Val Seriana, Val Brembana, Canonica, Val di Scalve,
Val San Martino and the whole plain spreading from Fontanella
as far as Rivolta: Lake Sebino and the River Oglio in the east
and the River Adda in the west were the natural borders of the
department. The district was divided at first into 24 cantons
and later on into 17.
The chief town of the 11th canton was Chignolo, which was also
a point of reference for the villages of the deep Bergamask
island.
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Further news of Chignolo were provided by the historian and politic
Giovanni Maironi from Ponte about the passage of the territory under
the Austrians starting from 1816; he mentioned the remains of
Roncalli palace and described Chignolo as a village of 900
inhabitants rich in crops and mulberry-trees.
The whole 19th century was a period of civil and political
foundation by which the community found in the city state its centre
of aggregation and of administrative organisation again.
Chignolo was one of the 24 villages of the Austrian district and
became one of the villages of the administrative district of
Bergamo, district of Ponte s. Pietro since 1860.
The Italian Unit was seen at first hostilely, then the stabilisation
of the political situation led to an increasing balancing of the
relationship between the catholic and farm culture of villages and
the secular and liberal culture. Indeed, the conflict was never
overcome completely even because the rise of social problems opened
further fronts where to challenge and other ideologies with which to
be confronted.
The birth of a social consciousness in a country world towards the
end of the century was an important event also encouraged by
schooling.
The institution of school was a fundamental matter even if
oppositions and abandonment of school ended up by decreasing the
possibility of cultural and professional growth. The knowledge often
remained the one learnt traditionally and didn't go beyond the
technique learnt with a millenary poor and submitted job.
The coming of the Fascist Regime in Chignolo is recollected because
it proposed, in 1927, the administrative unification of the villages
of Chignolo and Madone, which was called Centrisola. It was the
utmost attempt to make the deep myth of the island live again, whose
ideal centre was Chignolo, a village a little bit aloof from the
greatest ways of communication and supported by a poor country
culture and a deep and sensitive soul. The myth of Centrisola will
be swept away by the several experiences and events occurred in the
last few ten years.
When the isolating period was over thanks to the coming of the new
ways and means of communication, when the
eighteenth/nineteenth-century appearance of the original urban
nucleus was cancelled by new living spaces, when country works were
mostly replaced by industrial or handcraft activities, the community
began to ask itself about its own identity. Even the definitive
opening to the wider culture of towns and of the incipient European
civility didn't solve problems completely, although the coming of
modern school structures and the new high-level cultural initiatives
burnt out in a few years secular distances and lacks.
Now advanced urban and social paths are sought, which are often
occasions for growth and meeting.
But progress and development also demanded a moment of pause and
thoughtfulness where the recovery of its own identity and its own
historical memory becomes an important moment of comparison. | 
