Gravedona ed Uniti

Gravedona lies in a wide bay on the western shore of the upper lake, between the slopes of the Sasso Pelo to the north and the plain of the Liro stream to the south. Since 2011 it has been the main town of the municipality of Gravedona ed Uniti, formed by its merger with Consiglio di Rumo and Germasino. Its two main monuments stand at either end of the lakefront. To the south is Santa Maria del Tiglio, the Romanesque church in white and black bands, with the old parish church of San Vincenzo beside it. To the north is Palazzo Gallio, the palace of the four towers on a spur of rock.

The old centre has two parts: the Riva, along the lake, and higher up the Castello, the oldest quarter. Above the houses stand two churches. Santa Maria delle Grazie, the church of the Augustinian convent, was begun in 1467 and frescoed throughout between the late fifteenth and the early sixteenth century. Santi Gusmeo e Matteo dates from 1248.

Gravedona was inhabited before the Romans, and a Roman altar is kept in the church of San Vincenzo. In the Middle Ages it was the centre of the Tre Pievi, the territory that united the communities of Gravedona, Dongo and Sorico: it depended on Como but governed itself with wide autonomy. In 1335 it passed with Como to the Visconti, lords of Milan. From 1512 it was ruled for some years by the Grisons.

In 1580 Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio bought the county of the Tre Pievi from Philip II, King of Spain and Duke of Milan. His heirs, the Dukes of Alvito, held it until the end of the eighteenth century. In those centuries many people from the upper lake emigrated, above all to Palermo. On 27 April 1945 Benito Mussolini, captured by partisans at Dongo, was taken to the Guardia di Finanza barracks at Germasino, where he was held until late that night.

Santa Maria del Tiglio was built in the first half of the twelfth century as a baptistery, in place of an early Christian baptistery of the fifth or sixth century, whose remains came to light in the excavations of 1953. The walls alternate bands of white Musso marble and dark stone. The bell tower is set directly into the facade: its base dates from the fourteenth century, and its octagonal upper part was completed in the sixteenth. Inside are medieval frescoes and a large twelfth-century wooden crucifix. The church stands a few steps from the shore.

Beside it is San Vincenzo, the old parish church, consecrated in 1072 and remodelled in Baroque style from the seventeenth century. Its sacristy holds a gold cross and chalice by the Gravedona goldsmith Ser Gregori. The upper lake has other Romanesque churches, such as Santa Maria in Martinico at Dongo and Piona Abbey: the round takes half a day by car.

Tolomeo Gallio, born at Cernobbio in 1527, was a cardinal and Secretary of State to Pope Gregory XIII. Having become lord of the Tre Pievi, he had the palace built from 1586 on a promontory of rock above the lake. The design is attributed to Pellegrino Tibaldi and Giovanni Antonio Piotti. The palace has four towers at its corners and a loggia in the middle of the lake front. In 1636 the troops of Henri, Duke of Rohan, set fire to its roof, which Francesco Gallio had rebuilt.

In the nineteenth century part of the palace was used as a silk mill. Since 1983 it has belonged to the Comunità Montana, which has its offices here. Every year at Easter its rooms host a show of camellias from around the lake. In summer the palace holds concerts, and in September its terrace hosts the Pianomaster piano series.

The municipality climbs from the lake into the mountains. At Consiglio di Rumo the parish church of San Gregorio, recorded since 1242, keeps fifteenth-century frescoes and a Serassi organ of 1760–61. At Brenzio the church of San Giovanni Battista has two chapels frescoed in 1628 by the Fiammenghino. At Germasino the parish church of Santi Donato e Clemente keeps objects given by villagers who had emigrated to Palermo.

Two feasts come round every year. On the evening of 14 August decorated, illuminated boats parade in a contest past the lakefront, and the evening ends with fireworks. On 11 September Saints Gusmeo and Matteo are remembered in the church built where tradition places their martyrdom.