Cypress Island is small. It has just one little house, and is situated on a lake which itself cannot be considered large. Great, however, are both the history and the charm of this site; great were the characters that have owned it, the artists and writers who have admired it. The island boasts an ancient history, dating back as far as the Neolithic period, approximately 10,000 years B.C. On the easternmost point were lake-dwellings.
The historical events were tied to those of the Lake Pusiano and its illustrious owners and prestigious events. In 1300 Milan’s Archbishop owned the lake together with the collegiate church of San Giovanni Battista from Monza. Then for three centuries, till the end of 1700, succeeded the Carpani’s, lords of the manor of the area. Then the period of the three Marquises started: Francesco Carpani, followed by Giuseppe Antonio Molo and Gerolamo d’Adda. The lake, Pusiano’s Palace and the island were then acquired by the Viceroy Eugenio of Beauharnais, Napoleon’s step son, and then replaced by the Austrian Viceroy. The era between the 1700 and 1800 was the era of the three Princes: the Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria-Este- Lorraine, the quoted Eugenio of Beauharnais, and with the return of Austrian’s, Archduke Ranieri of Austria. The Imperial House of Austria kept the propriety until 1831. In 1874, after alternating happenings, the island was given to the brothers Antonio and Egidio Gavazzi, silky industrialists of Valmadrera.
