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Stories from the lake

Lake timeline

Two thousand years of the lake in order of date: from the Roman road along the western shore to the first steamboat, from the fall of the Isola Comacina to the Olginate dam. Each date leads to the story that tells it and to the place where it happened.

Dates
82
Stories
27
Periods
6
Como harbour with the jetty and moored boats, the cathedral dome on the right and the Brunate hill behind the town.
Photochrom Print Collection · Public domain

5dates

Middle Ages

6th century to 1449 · 1 date

  1. The first recorded flood in Como

    The lake comes into the town: it is the first flood on record, in a ducal letter of 20 September. After it the bridge at Lecco is given a tenth arch, in 1434, to let more water out of the lake.

    Place: ComoStory: When the lake comes into town

Renaissance and foreign rule

1450–1699 · 2 dates

  1. A villa around the Pliniana spring

    Count Giovanni Anguissola, governor of Como, buys the land at Torno where the spring described by Pliny the Younger rises, and builds the villa there in three years. In the loggia two inscribed slabs carry Pliny's letter, in Latin and in Italian.

    Place: Villa Pliniana, TornoStory: The two Plinys of Lake Como

    The yellow villa on the shore below the rock face, with the white waterfall coming down through the greenery behind it.

  2. The lake enters Como Cathedral

    During the flood the water reaches the steps of the high altar inside the cathedral. Two plaques, in Via Volta and Via Diaz, record it; in 1703 the lake reaches the cathedral again, as far as the organ piers.

    Place: Como CathedralStory: When the lake comes into town

Nineteenth century

1800–1899 · 1 date

  1. The highest level on record

    The lake rises to 3.97 metres above the zero of the Malgrate gauge, the highest level ever recorded, and about a third of Como ends up under water, including the whole area around the walls.

    Place: ComoStory: When the lake comes into town

    Piazza Cavour in Como seen from the water on a summer day: the lake comes to within a few steps of the square's paving, with piers, white motorboats and a red-and-white boat moored; on the left nineteenth-century buildings in pink and ochre with their awnings down, behind the roofs the green dome of the cathedral, a stone tower and a spire; in the middle the open square with trees, flowering shrubs, lamp posts and people strolling, and round it modern buildings of several storeys.

Twentieth century

1900–1999 · 1 date

  1. The flood of the year of the Valtellina disaster

    The lake reaches 2.64 metres above the Malgrate zero, the highest level since it has been regulated, reached again on 15 October 1993. With the dam Piazza Cavour stays flooded for 30 days; without it, it would have been 85.

    Place: ComoStory: When the lake comes into town