Carlo Guzzi

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Was born in Milan on 4 November 1889, the second of four children. The father, an engineer and appreciated professional, was the owner of an important study in the Milan of the late nineteenth century and was among the first collaborators of the Higher Technical Institute (Polytechnic) of Milan. In the landscape of the Milan of the time, the Guzzi family presented itself, therefore, as a wealthy family, owner, as well as the residential home of Corso Buenos Aires, that of a holiday home in Mandello del Lario.

The sudden death of his father, which took place in October 1906, forced Carlo to abandon his studies. In fact, the mother Elisa, with three children still to be maintained, decided to leave Milan and move to the Mandello house. Guzzi, for help the family, sought employment and found employment as a mechanic at the Singer sewing machine factory. In 1909 Guzzi married Francesca Gatti (1891-1967), daughter of a farmer from Mandello, from whom he had only one son, Ulisse (1911-80).

With his friend Parodi cultivates, for a long time, an ambitious project: to develop an innovative model of motorcycle engine that could offer, in addition to excellent performance, great reliability and safety. In setting and designing the new engine, Guzzi was able to merge the solutions already present on the market and combine them in a fruitful way; in addition, the experience learned in large factories (Singer) had made it sensitive to an “industrial” approach to motorcycle production. But to realize these projects there was a need for substantial investments to which he provided, through his friend Parodi, the father of this, Emanuele Vittorio Parodi, a great Genoese ship owner.

Within a few years, the production capacity of the company grew strongly: in 1925 there were already 350 employees and the factory was able to produce 1500 copies a year, placing itself, in terms of production capacity, among the most important producers national. The sustained growth in the demand for motorcycles, especially since the 1950s, decreed the definitive industrial success of the Mandello house. He died in Lecco on 3 November 1964.

Monument to Carlo Guzzi, Mandello del Lario.