Bissone is known throughout the world for being the birthplace of illustrious figures in European art history. The first to bring glory to this small riverside village was the sculptor Giovanni Bono, who in 1281 created the two-storey portico on the façade of Parma Cathedral. From then on, entire families of artists contributed, for generations, to the construction and embellishment of churches and palaces throughout Europe, starting in the 13th century. Architects, sculptors, painters and stucco artists in the service of emperors, high prelates and noble families left evidence of their creative abilities everywhere. The best known is certainly Francesco Castelli, better known as Borromini, the architect who enriched Rome with unparalleled masterpieces in the 17th century. But others, too, with their skill, upheld the name of Bissone among the most prestigious European courts: the Bono, Maderno, Gaggini, Somaini, Tencalla, Garovi, Garovaglio, Bussi, Caliari, Orsatti families and others. United in teams, often reinforced with workers from neighbouring municipalities or the Intelvi Valley, they built and decorated buildings from Italy to Czechoslovakia, from Spain to Hungary and, during occasional returns to their homeland, the houses of their native village.

The Gaggini family

Very well-known in Liguria, Sicily and Spain, the Gaggini family left everywhere evidence of their art right from the middle of the 15th century. Their progenitor was Beltrame Gaggini (?-before 1476), an architect, from whom came Antonio, Pace and Pietro. Giovanni and Antonio worked as architects and sculptors mainly in Genoa, while Pace (1460-1525) was the designer of superb works on the façade of the Certosa di Pavia, where he worked for his uncle Antonio della Porta. Having gone to Seville, he carved the large monument to countess Catalina de Ribera which can be admired in the university church.

Domenico Gaggini (1426-1492) worked as sculptor in Genoa, Naples and Palermo. But it was primarily in Sicily that his workshop had great success and was carried on by his children, grandchildren and so on until ca 1750. They achieved considerable fame as sculptors, plasterers and goldsmiths. Notably, his son Antonello (1478-1536) achieved great success all over Sicily and in the south of Italy by making statues, bas-reliefs, funeral monuments and other kinds of sculpture.