Mornese's history
The ancient name of Mornese was Molanesio, a term from the Latin "mulio, mulionis", which makes one presume it was founded by Genoese muleteers. The need for a stop over for merchants or muleteers crossing the summit, is evident from a contract signed on August 15, 1118 by a certain Ottone de Murta, the owner of some properties used as inn and stables in the territory of Molanesio and Casaleggio. He gave them, free of charge, to Ansaldo and Giovanna Molanesio with the only obligation of putting them at his disposal on the occasion of his trips and providing him with food, lodgings and fodder for his animals. In 1118, Mornese and Casaleggio, having become a territory of their own, probably undivided, were already inhabited centers with a certain stable population. According to a tradition, stated in the acts of the episcopal visit made in 1751 by Mgr. Andujar and in a manuscript of earky 19th century local history, the villages of Voltignana and Ponticello were already united to Mornese in 1118 . By 1271, Mornese had become a thoroughfare of considerable importance. According to tradition, the Abbot of the holy hermitage of Ponticello came to live in the village and built a castle where today we find the parish church. The place is, in fact, known as Castellazzo. About the year 1270, the Rosso della Volta, one of the Genoese families who took part in the government of the city and had considerable agricultural interests in the place, chose Mornese as the site for their castle. They built it on the Borgoalto hill, facing that of the Abbot. It is a castle of good standing, of inestimable woth at a time when even rich wealty people slept on planks and straw matresses. The Rosso della Volta family mantained the castle in Mornese for about fifty years. In 1330, the Rosso della Volta family ceded the entire property to others. The new owners, most probably, belonged to the Doria family. One of its members, Brancaleone, became, from 1290 to 1303, lord and owner of Lerma. The Doria family also bought the villa of Ponticello in 1352.In 1366, Mornese belonged to Luca Doria and would belong to Doria family until the death of Ugo (1574) when the family lineage came to an end. Twelve years after his death, his widow sold the entire holding to Filippo da Passano, to whom the inhabitants of Mornese pledged loyalty. Among these, were Stefano, Bernardino and Agostino Mazzarello. They were discendants of a certain Prino, a native from Fiaccone (now Fraconalto) and more precisely from a place called Maxareto, who in 1560 obtained tax exemption as father of thirteen children, all living at that time. Gregorio, one of Prino's sons, is the very first Mazzarello from Mornese of whom something is recorded. In 1560 Gregorio was a witness in a notary act and his surname, "from Maxareto", was written by the notary as it was pronounced: Mazaree, later into Latin Mazarelus. The houses and cottages of the several descendants of Gregorio and Stefano Mazzarello, later, formed the villages of Mazzarelli. From Gregorio's family branch would come, on May 9, 1837, Maria Domenica Mazzarello, the Holy Cofoundress of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. New lords followed until 1844, when Mornese was reacquired by the Doria family.