Castellanza is a town

Town

A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...

 and comune

Comune

In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

located in the province of Varese

Province of Varese

The Province of Varese is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Varese but its largest city is Busto Arsizio....

, along the boundary of the province of Milan

Province of Milan

The Province of Milan : /) is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Milan. The provincial territory is highly urbanized, resulting in the third highest population density among the Italian provinces with more than 2,000 inhabitants/km2, just behind the provinces of...

, in the Lombardy

Lombardy

Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...

 region of northern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.

Overview

The toponym refers to the castellanze (plural form, singular castellanza), defensive territorial unities who rose around castels and other strongpoints in the then county of Seprio. The Olona

Olona

The Olona is a 71 km long Italian river, which runs through the provinces of Varese and Milan.The Olona has more than one source; in fact it has six main springs...

 river divides Castellanza in the two main boroughs of Castellanza proper and Castegnate.
The town is renowned for its recently established private University Carlo Cattaneo

University Carlo Cattaneo

The University Carlo Cattaneo is a university located in Castellanza, Italy. It was founded in 1991 and is organized in three Faculties. The University is named after Carlo Cattaneo, a nineteenth century local thinker and economist whose philosophy placed human intelligence and willpower alongside...

(also known as LIUC).

The town has a population of approximately 15,000 inhabitants and since the late 19th century has been one of the main industrial centres in the province of Varese. With the beautiful backdrop of the Alps and the famous Italian lakes Lago Maggiore and Lago di Como, the province of Varese is also home to 23,000 manufacturing and craft industries that export over 30% of their production worldwide and generate employment to approximately 175 thousand people.

Castellanza received the honorary title of city with a presidential decree on January 4, 1974.