The best walks and hikes around Cassano D'Adda

In the village of Crespi d’Adda, there is a unique building. It is the so-called Castello villa. Together with the chimneys, the Castello villa of Crespi d’Adda is the most striking building in the entire workers' village, because it towers over the plain even from kilometers away. Its impressiveness is justified by the role it plays: being the calling card of the entire workers' village of Crespi d’Adda.

The Church of the Most Holy Name of Mary is the parish church of ⁠Crespi d'Adda, a hamlet in the municipality of Capriate San Gervasio in the province of Bergamo. Built between 1891 and 1893, it represents one of the key monuments of the famous workers' village, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The building was commissioned by the entrepreneur Cristoforo Benigno Crespi as part of the social structures intended for the well-being and community life of his employees. The Crespi family, originally from Busto Arsizio, wanted the church to be an almost exact copy of the Sanctuary of Santa Maria di Piazza in Busto Arsizio.

The industrial village of Crespi d'Adda, located in the municipality of Capriate San Gervasio (Bergamo), is the best-preserved workers' village in Southern Europe. Founded in 1878 by the textile entrepreneur Cristoforo Benigno Crespi, it represents an exceptional example of an ideal "company town" and, since 1995, has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Unlike many industrial archaeology sites, Crespi d'Adda is a living and still inhabited site, mainly by the descendants of the original workers.

Villa Crespi in Crespi d'Adda (a hamlet of Capriate San Gervasio, Bergamo), also known simply as the Castle, was the lavish manor house of the Crespi family within the famous workers' village, now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Church of the Most Holy Name of Mary is the main place of worship in Crespi d'Adda, a famous workers' village in the municipality of Capriate San Gervasio and included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites.

The Locks of Trezzo sull'Adda represent a masterpiece of hydraulic engineering set in a landscape of rare beauty, where the force of the river meets human ingenuity. Located in the shadow of the majestic Visconti Castle, these structures were fundamental in making the Adda navigable, ideally connecting Lake Como to Milan via the Naviglio della Martesana canal. Walking along the towpath, one admires the contrast between the industrial archaeology of the Taccani Power Plant and the slow flow of water between the Adda's 'ceppo' rock walls. It is a place where the history of Leonardo da Vinci, who studied fluid motion here, merges with lush nature, offering evocative views and a suspended atmosphere that tells of centuries of navigation and river work.

The Naviglio della Martesana, definitively completed in 1496 under the guidance of Ludovico il Moro, flows from Trezzo sull’Adda to Milan for a total length of 38 km. The route runs alongside the ancient Roman road (the current SS 11 padana superiore) which crossed the Adda with two branches: at Vaprio and Cassano. Irrigation of the land located above the spring belt was for a long time the predominant use of the canal, so much so that initially navigation was limited to two days a week; concurrently with the improvement of the agricultural structure thanks to irrigation, a notable flourishing of stately villas occurred in the Baroque era, intended to enjoy the convenience of travel on water and to control owned lands.

Naviglio della Martesana is perhaps the least known of the ancient artificial canals connecting Milan to the great Lombard rivers. It originates from the Adda in Concesa, a hamlet of Trezzo d’Adda, crosses the Martesana sub-region, northeast of the provincial capital, and once in the city, it plunges underground beneath Via Melchiorre Gioia, at the height of Cassina de’ Pomm. It measures approximately 38 km in length, with a width varying from 9 to 18 meters. However, once upon a time, the Naviglio della Martesana continued in the open air all the way to the center, where a lock system centered on the Conca dell’Incoronata connected it to the short Naviglio di S. Marco and the urban network of the Navigli. The lock was inaugurated in 1496, utilizing lock gates designed by Leonardo da Vinci. The canal had been opened in 1471, under Francesco Sforza. By connecting it to the other Navigli, Leonardo laid the foundations for realizing a dream of the Sforzas: to travel by water from the Ticino, and therefore from Lake Maggiore, all the way to the Adda.