The Commune of Carimate is 5,21 kmq wide and lies at a height of 265 meters. It is a nice village situated south of Cantù, on a hill between the Seveso River and the Serenza Stream. It includes the hamlet of Montesolaro, which is located north of the village, on a morainal rise. The old name of Carimate was Carimanum, while Carimate is the recent name of the town (12th century). The historic origins of Carimate, which probably rose in the Roman period, are lost in antiquity.
In 998, Carimate was already one of the 40 main towns in Brianza.
The history of this centre is linked with the castle: this latter has never been a strategic stronghold, but simply a private residence. Among the famous personalities that honoured the Lords of the Castle in Carimate, there were Emperor Maximilian (1496) and Ludwig the Moor (1499).The castle was sold to a real estate agency in 1955, then to a record company and at last to a hotel complex.
The Oratory of St. Maria dell'Albero was built in 1517. Nobody knows when the parish church of St. Giorgio Martyr was built.
According to the tradition, it was constructed in memory of the Virgin's apparition to some peasants and Her revelation that the famine was about to finish. But it appears to be more likely that the church was built on the site of an old shrine as fulfilment of a vow (plague), as written on the epigraph at the Virgin's feet.
St. Carlo built the Church of the Holy Assumption in the chaplaincy in the hamlet of Montesolaro.
Montesolaro is known for Villa Vismara as well, which belonged to Marquis Brivio and then to Alfonso Vismara.