The road owes its name to Duke Gabrio Servelloni, who purchased it from the Counts of Adda in 1760 to facilitate travel within his estates.
This interpodal road, which follows the route of an ancient Roman centuriation, became a very important refuge during World War II. Surrounded by centuries-old trees and thick hedges, it was invisible to enemy aircraft, which dropped illuminating bombs at night to identify movements and potential targets.
It is a mostly unpaved road that can only be traveled on foot or by bicycle and connects the municipalities of Rodano, Settala, and Pantigliate. Along the route, several active farms are still located in the Cascine di Cassinetta, Paradiso, Crocina, and Castello farms. This last farmhouse houses a museum of rural civilization. People came from the farms and neighboring villages such as Limito, Pobbiano, Trenzanesio, and Pioltello, which, being close to the Milan-Brescia railway line, were under constant bombardment from bombs dropped on the Segrate marshland and along the entire length of the railway. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the water system that had led to the reclamation of the Lombard plain was largely abandoned, returning this area to a marshy state. But already around the year 1000, the Cistercian monks, and later the Benedictine and Humiliati monks, restored and expanded the works built by the Romans, creating the current irrigation system that includes the Navigli and the Muzza canals—built between 1100 and 1400—and which was practically completed at the end of the 19th century with the opening of the Villoresi canal. The artefacts present in the area and visible along the “Strada del Duca” route can be dated from the 17th to the 19th century, the period in which the last brick and granite masonry works date back.
Translated by Google •
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