The Rovelli family, 'marangoni', i.e. carpenters, lived for generations in Cusio Superiore, a district which in the 15th century was part of the municipality of Averara, of which it was the Quadra di Sopra. At the beginning of the 17th century, Francesco di Simone Rovelli lived in this house which was 'murata, porticata, solerata, zovata, lobiata e piotata', i.e. built with solid walls and a large stone entrance portal with a chamfered arch and a framed edge, with a portico on the ground floor overlooked by the carpenters' workshop, with several beamed slabs covered by plank floors, wooden balconies, the characteristic 'lobie' and a roof covered with slates. Antonio Rovelli (1641-1710) and his son Ambrogio (1674-1747) had a workshop in this house, and in the contracts he said he had a workshop "alla fontana di Cusio". In 1794 part of this large house, the one towards the widening of the fountain, was sold by Angelo, son of Gian Maria, who by then lived in Bergamo, to Gio Battista Anatalone Paleni, while Antonio's house was still inhabited by Giuseppe di Lorenzo Rovelli. On the house there was a fresco with the Madonna and Saints dated 1603, donated to the parish priest Don Giacomo Beretta in 1966 and of which the second layer still remains. In this house there is also an underground passageway that crossed the road and led to a cellar towards the church, which people said once led to Cusio Basso. In this workshop of marangoni, carvers and inlayers, worked the founder Antonio with his sons Giuseppe, Antonio, Giovan Maria, Francesco and Gio Battista and his great-grandson Lorenzo until 1854. In the Rovelli workshop Gio. Paolo Caniana (1669-1749) from Romano learned the art of carving and inlaying. He was here from 1685 to 1690, when on 23rd August he married Caterina Guarinoni from Averara, where he then went to live before moving to Alzano where he was engaged, with his more famous brother Gian Battista, in the realisation of the famous sacristy.
Italian