Costa di Mezzate

The original 13th-century tower house belonging to the Zoppi family was a rectangular Palazzo that was expanded during the 16th century to the point that it was later called Pavione, alluding to the Italian word “padiglione”, meaning “pavilion”. This change occurred with the 15th-century addition of a walled body against the hill. In the basement were a number of rooms used as stables and carriage storage, whilst the first floor was characterised by a small courtyard with pillars supporting a movable roofing system consisting of textiles or climbing plants. This was considered a way to make the architecture softer and more elegant so it could become the residence of the members of this Ghibelline family. The building work was only possible by closing off the road between the two tower-houses thanks to the permission granted by the Vertova family, who moved the entrance to the top of the ridge of the hill where they also created a square courtyard with portico, giving it the appearance of a fortification.

Yet, relations between the Vertova and the Zoppi were not always good, with the two families being very influential in the administration of the village in which they both resided. Harmony between the two families was interrupted when, in the 17th century, the Vertova family built strong buttresses on the southern side of the hill, near the sloping road, in order to construct a balcony overlooking the plain. In the meantime, the Zoppi family obtained permission to work on the perimeter walls of the Vertova family’s property as a support to carry out a further extension and create a vertical garden on the Pavione, founding an area to construct a quaint church dedicated to San Domno, Domneone and Eusebia. From this moment on, something began to crack between the two families, probably due to some mutual decisions not respected or simply envy, to the point that on 2nd November 1617, Lucillo Vertova and Ludovico and Paolo Zoppi argued heatedly and, in the San Giorgio churchyard, shot at each other with their arquebuses, until Priest Giambattista Vertova intervened. Some time prior, in 1609, a member of the Zoppi household was murdered along with Rinaldo Zoppi. The same fate was reserved for Paolo Zoppi. The conflict between the two families continued and, in 1626, 24-year-old Alessandro Zoppi was killed by a hitman sent by Francesco Vertova, using the same weapon as in the previous crime, an act that added to the hatred between them. In 1650, a servant of Riccardo Vertova was killed, as was Bernardo Vertova in 1655.

During the 13th and 14th centuries, the Zoppi family were the owners of the original Rasetto, the name given to the agricultural shelter that originally consisted of a solid wooden palisade defended by a moat, with a large rudimentary house inside covered with stone slabs, called “piòde”, with canopies (tègie) and open porticoes leaning against the hillside. This Rasetto was the first structure in the new city district to be involved in the reorganising works for the new village that was beginning to be fortified. On large blocks of rusticated stone, an imposing square tower was erected on the corner, later called the Torre di Alberto yet better known as the Torre degli Zoppi. It was part of a rectangular fortress, surrounded by a high curtain wall, 20 metres of which are still visible today on Via Camozzi, in line with the ancient moat. Inside was the domus padronale, enclosed in a narrower rectangular plot, used both to separate the masters from the servants and as an extreme defence system.

After the construction of two more farmsteads near the river – the Mezzate and Tinera – a central piazza was created, around which a number of shops, houses and towers were constructed by families of small landowners or well-off tenants. The road across the bridge over the Zerra stream, with the chapel dedicated to Santa Maria, united the centre with the Church of San Giorgio. Not far from the square tower, a little further up the hill, the Zoppi family put up another building, this time more elegant, configuring it as a two-storey rectangular Palazzo along with another tower-house. It was named Pavione and became the residence of a member of the Zoppi family, descendants of the Longobardi, who also owned the Torre del Gombito in Bergamo’s Città Alta. It stood exactly halfway between the other tower-house of the Zoppi family and the upper building belonging to the Vertova family, which was affected by the continuous changes in the village and also became a tower-house.