Deepening:

The chestnut yesterday and today

A bit of history…

For the Romans the oak was the symbol of supremacy: for this reason on the emblem of the Roman King it was a little wreath of leaves of this tree. With oak's leaves were plaited even civic wreath and emlems of worth, given to the valiant citizens in order to underline their regality and their fighting merit. (indeed in Latin robur means both oak and strength).
Still in Rome, the soldier that saved the life of a fellow soldier was crowned wirh a oak's wreath and with the same crown were adorned the real men (viri) who had particular civil virtues.
The roman mythology tells that the oaks can host two nymphes, considered as the souls of the trees, Dryads and Hamadryads: the first could leave the tree before its demolition while the second were linke to thetree forvever.
The oak belongs to the group of the cosmic trees, venerated as holy creatures in which could realise the meeting between human being and God. With their body made of roots, trunk and follage also formed a allegory of the three worlds, common for many religions: underworld, living and divine.
This tree in Greek mythology was considered as the holy tree of Jupiter (or Zeus): indeed it was the most ancient Greek oracle situated in Dodona (in Epiro) and dedicated to Zeus, while in Rome the Hill Capitol, sacred to Jupiter, was covered of oaks.
Even for the Gauls that lived in Po Valley (Cisalpine Gaul) before the coming of Romans, the oak, , largely spread in forests, represented a holy tree in which stayed Sky's Gods: for this reason ships, doors and shields had to be made in oak's wood. Druids, Celt priests but also poets, sorcerers, judges, historiographers, believed that nothing was more holy then a oak on which bloomed the mistletoe, whose berries were symbol of good harvest and wealth.
When Romans conquered the Cisalpine Gaul began a activity of deforestation and temper of some areas in order to make new places for cultivations; but even the Caesar's soldiers were afraid of cutting the secular oaks: anyway the ax won. Only the forests on the swamps and in areas not suitable for the agricolture were saved. Among them, for example, the woods that till half of XIX century covered today's Roccolo park, within Canegrate, Busto Garolfo, Parabiago, Nerviano, Arluno and casorezzo.

…Today

The oak's wood is now used to build ships and wooden beams, garden furniture and tools for playgrounds.
It resist very good also underwater and for this reason the pilings on which are built the houses in Venice have being realised almost with this kind of wood.
Parts of the trees, useless as work material, give a very good wood to burn.
The oak's fruit, tha so called acorn, is picke to fatten porksand, hardly, even rabbits and gooses.
The acom can be eaten also by the humans: many people remeber that during the last war mince and toasted acomswere used to made a surrogate of coffee. In the last woods in Alto Milanese areas the oak is today very rare, on the other hand many are exhotic trees such as blackthorn and black locust. WWf Woods of Vanzago and Arluno are an exception, in Roccolo park, lats parts of primitive forests.

A changing area

Based on topographical researches, we can suppose that part of the west area of Milan in Imperial Age went under changes. Many woods were cleared and many zones along river Olona to create space for new agricoltural areas, after divided for fiscal reasons. Romans indeed, divided the territoty in big sqares of 710.4 m for every side, called centurie because they were in turn divided in 100 fields, each one of 71 m for every side. The prints of this division are still visible and they characterise the drawing of today's landscape and also that of the residential areas. It is probabily that large areas – for example among Arluno, Casorezzo, Busto Garolfo and Prabiago – remained wild because of the low fecundity of the soils, the lack of water streams or swamps, above all in areas near Olona.
First settlements of the area – focus along Olona, but not in flooded areas – kept their structure that characterised Celtic villages, before the roman conquest. They were medium-small communities, each one with its woods and grazing lands.
Other settlements, probably of Roman origins, born in the crossing areas of centurial axis: among them you can recognize even the old Parabiago – situated in a zone that isn't up for floods, two centurias (1,400 m) from Sempione, that follows the roman road that linked Milan to Angera – and villastanza, situated 4 centurias (2,800 m) from the same road.