Cesare Mazzoni – lawyer and entrepreneur

Businessman turned his local spa water into a global export

San Pellegrino water has been
in production since 1905

Cesare Mazzoni, a Milanese lawyer who founded the company that produces the world-famous San Pellegrino mineral water, died on this day in 1915 in Milan.

The business Mazzoni started, in the small spa town of San Pellegrino Terme in Lombardy in northern Italy, manufactured 1.5 million bottles of the reputedly beneficial water during its first year of production in 1905 and has now become a multimillion-euro operation.

The son of an English teacher, Mazzoni was born in Milan in 1862. He studied law at the university of Pavia, a course from which he graduated with full marks. He then went to work for a railway company dealing with aspects of commercial law.

Mazzoni founded the Società Anonima delle Terme di San Pellegrino in 1899 and took over the running of the Hotel Terme and Fonte Palazzolo company, and the Hotel Milano and Fonte Salaroli company, after buying them from the local families who owned them.

He built new spa facilities and employed the architect Romolo Squadrelli to design and build a new water bottling plant in San Pellegrino, completed in Stile Liberty - Liberty style - the Italian equivalent of Art Nouveau style, between 1902 and 1904.

Within a few years of opening the plant, the 60 people who Mazzoni employed there were producing between four and five million bottles of the spa water annually to go on sale.

Mazzoni also founded the Val Brembana electric railway and joint stock company in 1904, which built the Bergamo to San Giovanni Bianco railway line, and he founded the Milanese Joint Stock Company for the salami and cheese industry of Milan in 1909.

He became president of many companies in Val Brembana and Val Camonica and was also an advisor to banks in the Bergamo area.

Cesare Mazzoni began to bottle the water from
San Pellegrino's springs in 1899

But Mazzoni was suddenly  taken ill in August 1915 and he died on August 21 that same year, aged just 53. He was buried in the Cimitero Monumentale of Milan. 

The municipality of San Pellegrino officially recognised Mazzoni as un ‘cittadino benemerito’, a ‘citizen of merit’, and in 1916 a street was named after him near the area where the thermal establishments were located.

The history of San Pellegrino water dates back to medieval times and by the early years of the 19th century, many noble people would travel to the town to ‘take the water’ because it had earned the reputation for being beneficial to people’s health.

After the company was founded in 1899 by Mazzoni, bottles of San Pellegrino water began to be shipped overseas. With the opening of the thermal facilities at the beginning of the 20th century, San Pellegrino started to thrive as a high-class holiday resort, which attracted aristocrats from all over Europe.

Also designed by Squadrelli, the Liberty-style Grand Hotel and Casino of San Pellegrino were opened in 1906 and they soon became popular haunts for international royalty and politicians. Two Queens of Italy and other members of the Italian royal family visited, along with famous people such as opera composer Pietro Mascagni, army General Luigi Cadorna and film director Federico Fellini.

As early as 1908, San Pellegrino water was being exported to Cairo, Calcutta, Shanghai, the United States, Brazil, Peru and Australia. 

The company was also the first to produce aranciata, or orangeade, in the 1930s, and they went on to produce sparkling drinks in other fruit flavours.

In 2010, more than a billion bottles of San Pellegrino water and San Pellegrino fruit beverages were sold in a single year.

The Grand Hotel and Casino at San Pellegrino
is an example of Liberty style opulence

Travel tip:

The spa town of San Pellegrino Terme is 24km (14 miles) north of the city of Bergamo and is a comune of Bergamo province, located in the Val Brembana. The name San Pellegrino has now become synonymous with its celebrated bottled aqua minerale, but for centuries it has been a place people visited, hoping for a cure for their illnesses. Leonardo da Vinci is reputedly one of the visitors who has sampled San Pellegrino’s ‘miraculous waters’, which are believed to be particularly effective against kidney stones and uric acid crystals. It is worth a visit to see the opulent Liberty-style architecture and to take a stroll along the banks of the River Brembo, imagining what San Pellegrino would have been like at the height of its popularity when it was frequented by royalty and celebrities. Viale Cesare Mazzoni is situated near the Brembo river and the thermal establishments. 

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Bergamo's Piazza Vecchia has been hailed as
the most beautiful square in Italy

Travel tip:

Bergamo is a fascinating, historic city in Lombardy with two distinct centres. The upper town, the Città Alta, is a beautiful walled city with buildings that date back to medieval times. At the heart of the Città Alta is Piazza Vecchia, which was remodelled during the Renaissance and has been hailed by architects and writers as the most beautiful square in Italy. It is surrounded by old palaces and has a 12th century bell tower that still strikes 100 times at 10pm each night to mark the ancient curfew, when the city’s gates would be closed for the night. You can walk through the archways under Palazzo della Ragione into Piazza Duomo where you will see the Duomo, the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, the Colleoni Chapel and the Battistero, all of them architectural gems. The elegant Città Bassa (lower town) grew up on the plain below and still has some buildings that date back to the 15th century. More imposing and elaborate architecture was added in the 19th and early 20th centuries and it is now a vibrant city with a wealth of shops, bars and restaurants. There are also palaces, churches, art galleries and museums, as well as a theatre, named after the Bergamo-born opera composer, Gaetano Donizetti.

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More reading:

Ernesto Basile, the architect who was a pioneer of Stile Liberty

Gaspare Campari and the aperitif that bears his name

Luigi Lavazza, the Turin grocer who became a market leader in coffee

Also on this day:

1862: The birth of adventure novelist Emilio Salgari

1943: The birth of actor Lino Capolicchio

1969: The death of footballer Giuseppe Meazza

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Simone Pianetti – anarchist and mass murderer

1914 killer still officially 'on the run'

Simone Pianetti remains officially
'on the run' - after 112 years

Notorious gunman Simone Pianetti, who has been regarded as a hero by some Italian and American anarchists, was born on this day in 1858 in Camerata Cornello in the province of Bergamo in Lombardy.

In July 1914, Pianetti went out with his rifle one day and shot and killed seven people living in his local area who he believed had wronged him. He then went on the run and, after firing at some Carabinieri officers who tried to arrest him, escaped into the mountains above Bergamo.

A search was carried out by more than 200 officers, from the Polizia di Stato, the Carabinieri and an infantry regiment, to try to capture him, but Pianetti managed to stay hidden in the mountains near the villages of Olmo al Brembo and Cassiglio.

Despite a 'Wanted' poster being published and circulated by the local Prefetto, offering a 5,000 lire reward, Pianetti was never caught and his body was never found.

It is known that when he was young, Pianetti had fired his rifle at his father without injuring him, after an argument over a legacy. He was not charged with any offence as a result and with the agreement of the local head of the Carabinieri, he left Italy and went to the USA.

Years later, he returned to Italy, his journey being paid for by his father, and he went back to live in Camerata Cornello, where he married and fathered seven children.

He opened a small restaurant where customers were also allowed to dance, but because the local parish priest and other church officials did not approve of the dancing at his restaurant, he was eventually forced to close it by the local municipal authorities.

He then opened an electric powered mill, but this also turned out to be an unsuccessful business venture. His reputation was blackened by his enemies and as a result he lost all his money and became impoverished.

As the only person in the area who did not attend church, Pianetti grew to believe that everyone hated him, which led to his murderous rampage in 1914.

A reward of 5,000 lire was offered
if Pianetti could be tracked down

On the morning of 13 July, Pianetti went out with his rifle and a list of the seven people who he believed had contributed towards his business failures and his poverty by either closing him down, or cheating him. 

His victims were the local doctor, Domenico Morali, the manager of the municipality, Abramo Giudici, and his daughter, Valeria, Giovanni Ghilardi, a shoemaker, Stefano Filippo, a priest, Giovanni Giupponi, a layman, and Caterina Milesi, a farmer.

It is thought his actions in 1914 may have been inspired by those of Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian student, who had assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife the previous month, the famous killings that set off the events that led to the start of World War I.

Pianetti was known to have survived in hiding in the mountains for some time and it is not known when, or where, he eventually died. It is thought that it may have been in 1952 in Milan, but this has never been proved. 

There were reported sightings of him in the Bergamo mountains, as well as in America and Venezuela. 

Some of the local people began to see the fugitive Pianetti as a liberator, and wrote on walls, praising him, with slogans such as ‘Long Live Pianetti, we need one in every town’. 

It is thought people helped him stay hidden from the authorities by giving him food and some residents were later sentenced to terms of imprisonment by the authorities for helping him.

Pianetti hailed from the village of Camerata 
Cornello in the Val Brembana area of Lombardy

In his absence, Pianetti was sentenced to life imprisonment, which was accompanied by five years in continuous solitary confinement.

Many theories have been put forward about how he escaped justice. Some people claim to have met him years later in either Switzerland or America, and there is a theory that in his old age he returned from America and lived with his son, Nino, in Milan, until he died in 1952.

In later years, Pianetti’s personality came to be admired by some Italian and American anarchists because of his actions against what was perceived to be the bigotry of those in authority in Italy in the religious establishment and society of his time.

He is remembered in towns in the Brembana Valley as a sort of avenger, often referred to as a righter of wrongs, and a kind of elusive hero opposed to the people in authority. The “romantic” aspect of the story prevails, leaving aside the tragic and criminal side, and the threat of “doing like Pianetti”, (in the Bergamo dialect fà de Pianetti ) is still used.

Pianetti’s death has never been recorded and the case against him has never been dropped, so he is now officially on the run aged 168.

The hamlet of Cornello dei Tasso, near Camerata
Cornello, is one of Lombardy's most beautiful villages

Travel tip:

Camerata Cornello, where Pianetti was born, is a small municipality in the province of Bergamo in Lombardy about 20km (12 miles) north of the city of Bergamo, in the upper part of the Brembana Valley, with a population of around 550 residents. It is one of the oldest towns in the valley and the first written information about it dates back to the year 1000. It is thought that the first permanent settlements in this area date back to the time of the barbarian invasions, when local populations fled to remote places to escape raids. In the Middle Ages part of fiefdom of the Visconti family, it grew in importance thanks to trade brought by the Via Mercatorum. Its thriving market made it a rival to neighbouring Zogno and San Giovanni Bianco.  In the 13th century the town was the birthplace of several members of the Tasso family, of which the poets Bernardo and Torquato are the most famous. The nearby hamlet of Cornello dei Tasso is among the best preserved and most picturesque in Lombardy.

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The Grand Hotel at San Pellegrino is one of the
best known landmarks in the Val Brembana

Travel tip:

The Val Brembana - Brembana Valley - stretches along the River Brembo, from the outskirts of Bergamo into the Orobic Alps. Its landscape is characterised by steep, forested slopes giving way to alpine meadows, with fast-moving rivers coursing through narrow gorges and stone villages clinging to the hillsides above the towns of the valley, the most famous of which is San Pellegrino Terme, the birthplace of San Pellegrino mineral water, also known for its Grand Hotel and Casino, built in the architectural style known as Stile Liberty, the Italian take on Art Nouveau. Val Brembana’s cuisine is hearty, alpine, and draws heavily on local ingredients, particularly its cheeses, including Branzi, made in the village of the same name, Formai de Mut, Averara and Valtorta. Venison and wild boar can be found on menus, inevitably accompanied by polenta, an alpine comfort food made from buckwheat flour, often with local cheese stirred in. 

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More reading:

Carmine Crocco, the bandit seen by peasants as Italy’s ‘Robin Hood’

Giuseppe Musolino, the vengeful killer who became an unlikely folk hero

Gino Lucetti, the anarchist who tried to kill Mussolini

Also on this day:

1497: The Bonfire of the Vanities

1622: The birth of Vittorio della Rovere, Grand Duchess of Tuscany

1878: The death of Pope Pius IX

1909: The birth of cavalry officer Amedeo Guillet

1941: The birth of pop singer Little Tony

1952: The birth of rock star Vasco Rossi

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