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Lecco

Laorca Cemetery, Lecco

Visit duration
30 min – 1 h
Booking
Not required
Area
Lecco Branch
The cemetery's terraces at the foot of the rock face, with graves, wall niches and palms, below the woods.Ysogo · CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Kaitu · CC0
  • Kaitu · CC0

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The cemetery's terraces at the foot of the rock face, with graves, wall niches and palms, below the woods.

Ysogo · CC BY-SA 4.0

Why go

The Laorca cemetery, in Lecco, climbs in terraces at the foot of Monte Medale, and historic chapels are set into the caves and hollows of the rock.

It is a national monument and part of the European Cemeteries Route. In 1933 the villagers rose against its closure and saved it. At its centre is the church of San Giovanni ai Morti, recorded as early as 1289, with beside it an ossuary of 1649 for the plague dead. You reach it by an eighteenth-century Way of the Cross, its stations in brick shrines, which leads to the 'Scurolo', the space between the rock and the church where the war memorial stands. There are also Art Nouveau family chapels of Lecco's great industrial families, and from the top you can see the city and the eastern branch of the lake.

  • The chapel of San Giovanni, in the cave, recalls a hermit named Giovanni who lived there in the Middle Ages.
  • The Way of the Cross chapels date from 1765 and were later restored by the painter Luigi Tagliaferri.
  • Among the Art Nouveau monuments are those of the Redaelli (1903–1908), Bolis (1914) and Falck (1922) families.

Highlights

  • The church of San Giovanni ai Morti, recorded in 1289
  • The plague ossuary of 1649
  • The eighteenth-century Way of the Cross
  • The chapels in the caves and the Art Nouveau shrines

Getting there

  • It stands on Via Crogno, in the Laorca district, north-east of Lecco's centre, at the foot of Monte Medale.
The cemetery and the houses of Laorca under snow, seen from above, with snowy mountains around.Rainbowintheska · CC BY-SA 4.0

On the map

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LeccoLaorca Cemetery, Lecco

© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL

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Sources and credits

Verified at source1 Oct 2026Lecco Tourism — Cimitero di Laorcaopens in a new tab

Sources and credits

Verified at source1 Oct 2026Lecco Tourism — Cimitero di Laorcaopens in a new tab