page_title: San Giorgio su Legnano
section_title: From 19th century to 21st century
hierarchical_section_title: San Giorgio su Legnano / History / From 19th century to 21st century
caption_attribution_description: English: Farmhouse in San Giorgio su Legnano (Italy) Italiano: Casa colonica a San Giorgio su Legnano
context_page_description: San Giorgio su Legnano is a comune in the Metropolitan City of Milan in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 20 kilometres northwest of Milan.
  San Giorgio su Legnano borders the following municipalities: Legnano, Villa Cortese, Canegrate, Busto Garolfo. It is located in the Po Valley northwest of Milan, from which it is 34 km away, near the valley in which the Olona river flows. Located slightly higher than the neighbouring Legnano, it is one of the smaller municipalities in the metropolitan city of Milan.
  Since 1957, the town has hosted the annual Campaccio competition, a cross country running event which attracts world class athletes. On 10 December 2006, San Giorgio su Legnano hosted the 2006 European Cross Country Championships.
context_section_description: In Napoleonic times, from an administrative point of view, the municipality of San Giorgio was suppressed and incorporated in the neighboring municipality of Canegrate. He was a member of the aforementioned municipality from November 4, 1809, to November 8, 1811.
  Agricultural crops were very varied. The main crops were cereals (millet and wheat), vine and mulberry, which is the basis of the breeding of silkworms. In addition to the cereal crop, the economy of San Giorgio su Legnano was also based on livestock farming. The agricultural contract spread in these centuries in the Altomilanese was that of the sharecropper. Vine was the most common crop in the area. In 1723, in fact, about 70% of the sangiorgese territory was cultivated with vineyards. The vine was so common that, as recently as 1855, San Giorgio su Legnano was among the communities where the fraction of the land worked in vineyards was predominant.
  On the social and economic front, this period was characterized by the profound transformation of the sangiorgese production system. It went from an agricultural economy to an industrial one. In the second half of the 19th century, the first small proto-industrial activities appeared. According to a document from 1872, two protoindustries for the treatment of silk were based in San Giorgio su Legnano, one for processing and the other for twisting. Overall, they employed about 200 people, mostly women. According to a written testimony of 1891, among the proto-industrial activities, a detached headquarters of the Kramer & C. plant in Legnano appeared and a craft activity for the production of spirits appeared. 
  The process of industrialization that led to the gradual transformation of the sangiorgese economy was accelerated by two natural disasters that put local agriculture in crisis: cryptogamy, a disease that affected the vine, and nosematosis, an epidemic that damaged the cocoons of silkworms. For the first infection, which appeared between 1851 and 1852, the result in Lombardy was the rapid fall in the amount of wine produced. The hectolitres of wine produced rose from 1,520,000 in 1838 to 550,000 in 1852. The final blow to wine production came from two other diseases of the vine that, between 1879 and 1890, affected the plant: the peronospora and the phylloxera. Following these epidemics, the wineries in San Giorgio su Legnano disappeared for good and the peasants concentrated their efforts on the production of cereals and the breeding of silkworms. In other wine areas the problem was solved by grafting species of vines immune to the disease (American grapes).
  However, this did not happen in San Giorgio: in 1911 about 80% of the agricultural land of San Giorgio su Legnano was destined for the cultivation of mulberries, with the cultivation of the vine having completely disappeared. Shortly after the spread of the disease of the vine, an infection of the silkworm, nosematosis, appeared. It was also called pébrin because it was revealed by small dark spots that covered the body of the bug. It was a disease that had never appeared before, and was considerably more dangerous than the kick that for centuries ruined part of the crop. The mulberry culture did not follow the fate of viticulture. The end of the cultivation of silkworms was in fact less rapid than that of viticulture. In San Giorgio, mulberries were cultivated until the early part of the 20th century.
  In the second part of the 19th century, Europe was hit by an agricultural crisis involving cereal crops. This was due to the spread of American grains at competitive prices on the markets. In fact, large areas of the American Middle West were destined for cultivation. In addition, thanks to technological advancement, there was a marked decrease in the cost of transport by sea. The effect was a deep crisis that affected cereal crops in Europe. This juncture, which reached its peak in the 1880s, characterized the agriculture of the old continent until the beginning of the 20th century. At this point the economic structure of San Giorgio su Legnano changed com
caption: Historical center in San Giorgio su Legnano
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