Associazione Cittadini Bovisasca

The children played peacefully in the protected area of the farmyard, under the careful and loving supervision of their mothers, without encountering any particular danger.

In front of each home, families typically had a mulberry tree, a plant native to China: these trees were important because their leaves were the favorite food of silkworms.

Until the Byzantine era, silk production was an ancient secret and China, holding the monopoly, sold these fabrics worldwide.
The silkworm (Bombyx mori) is a lepidopteran insect, a species of butterfly, belonging to the Bombycidae family, native to eastern Asia. The larvae of these insects secrete a sticky liquid called sericin, which hardens on contact with air, forming a cocoon.

​

This cocoon serves as a refuge for the silkworm and is the source of silk fibers. Before the silkworms transform into moths, the cocoons are carefully collected. The silkworm essentially loses 90% of its weight as it releases silk. At this stage, having significantly reduced its size, the metamorphosis begins. The larva then becomes a chrysalis that, after twelve days, transforms into a butterfly, leaving the cocoon filled with silk.
Once it was discovered which insect produced this marvelous yarn and which leaves it fed on, silk began to be produced in Europe as well. This is how the white mulberry – Morus alba – appeared in our territory. It is so called for its white fruits shaped like lengthened blackberries, recognizable by the cinnamon-colored bark and large leaves of various shapes. Silkworm breeding became widespread throughout the Lombardy region.

In many popular songs, the Milanese terms of murun, moron or muru can be found to indicate mulberry trees (“Tri Cu D’ai / murun fa l’uga lerai / col ciondolo lerai ..”), cavalee or bigatt to refer to silkworms and galet for cocoons.

In the central part of the Cascina, there were stables where dairy cows found refuge. On the upper floor, a hole in the floor allowed hay to be easily dropped directly into the animals’ mangers using a pitchfork.
The Bovisasca has been an important communication route for centuries, traversed by Roman armies, Napoleonic troops and Hitler’s armies.

It is said that the Cascina was used as a leper colony during the plague 1630, famously described by Manzoni,  and that Napoleonic troops rested here before the battles of Marengo. Almost certainly, some elderly inhabitants of the area remember that German anti-aircraft defenses were stationed nearby to protect the Bovisa gasometer. Many also recall the labor work carried out by the Russian prisoners who were camped under tents not far from the Cascina.

Nowadays, Cascina San Mamete continues to thrive. Twenty families live there and thanks to the solidarity of the local inhabitants a string concert was recently organised (September 2024) in the farmyard. the event was a great success, bringing attention to a place that seemed forgotten or unknown even to many Bovisaschesi.