I. Casa Forni

Audio narration by eArsJ. Casa Forni (Pier Mario Forni PMF, Ele Remo Cardana RC, Anna Bernardoni AB)Narrator: Look at the large white house on this street. On the upper floor, there is a window on the right framed by the remains of an old fresco that displays two small columns and a decorated beam.At the same level on the left, there is a spray-painted canvas on the wall showing the profile of Ludovico Sforza, known as Il Moro, who was Duke of Milan from 1494 to 1499.But what is the connection between this Renaissance figure, the frescoes, and the house?Its owner, Pier Mario Forni, is about to tell us:PMF: “The portrait of Il Moro is a reproduction by the artist Andrea Ravo Mattoni.It shows a detail from the frescoes that my wife and I accidentally rediscovered on the walls of our house during renovation work. They feature many prominent members of the Sforza family, the Dukes of Milan. There’s Francesco Sforza, Beatrice D’Este, and of course, Ludovico Il Moro. It’s a very important fresco, dating back to the late fifteenth century.Certain clues—such as the type of green used, the precision in the details, and the painted Gordian knots—suggest it may have been painted by an artist from the same period of Leonardo da Vinci, who was living in Milan at the time.”N: Ludovico Il Moro holds special meaning for Angera—or rather, for the ‘city’ of Angera.Anna Bernardoni explains why.AB: “In 1497, Ludovico Il Moro granted Angera the official title of city. It had been a small fishing village before that, under the control of the Borromeo family. Designation as a city gave it autonomy and freedom from feudal lords.This historical fact was discovered by a brilliant woman named Ambrogina Brovelli who, in 1954, found the edict in which Il Moro officially declared Angera to be a city.”