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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

7dates

Antiquity

To the 5th century · 1 date

  1. 1st century

    The Roman road along the western shore

    A Roman road links the river port of Cremona with Chiavenna by way of Milan and Como, running up the western shore of the lake towards Raetia, the province beyond the Alps. Its line is that of the Regina road, which remains a paved mule track for fifteen centuries.

    Place: ComoStory: The Regina, the road of the western shore

    Colonno from a drone, the Isola Comacina and the Tremezzina shore beyond, the Regina running between the houses and the water.

Middle Ages

6th century to 1449 · 2 dates

  1. 643

    Rothari's Edict names the Comacine masters

    Two chapters of the law of the Lombard king Rothari deal with the magister commacinus and settle who must pay for the damage if a house built by a master collapses. The name most probably means builders and stonecutters from the Como area, but its meaning is not settled.

    Place: ComoStory: The Comacine masters

    The Isola Comacina from above: a tongue of wooded land in the blue lake, with meadows and a white building towards the point and a strip of gravel on the shore; behind, the far shore with houses along the water, and at the bottom roofs and green branches.

  2. The comballo, the lake's cargo boat

    The comballo already appears in a document that forbids the boatmen of Lake Como to go into partnership with one another. Twenty to thirty metres long, flat-bottomed and with a single square sail, it carries Moltrasio stone, sand, lime and wood for the kilns.

    Place: ComoStory: The stone of the lake

Eighteenth century

1700–1799 · 1 date

  1. Late 18th century

    Silk leaves the home

    After three centuries as cottage work, with silkworms reared at home and thread spun in winter, silk processing moves into mills along the streams, which provide the power. In the nineteenth century Como becomes one of Europe's leading silk centres.

    Place: Silk MuseumStory: Como silk

    Hanks of silk yarn dyed in shades of blue, hanging on a wooden rod; spools of other colours behind.

Nineteenth century

1800–1899 · 3 dates

  1. The first steamboat

    The Lario, a wooden paddle steamer launched on 29 July from the Olmo beach at Borgo Vico, begins daily runs between Como and Domaso. A journey from Como to Colico, which under sail and oar could take a day or two, now takes a few hours and keeps to a timetable.

    Place: Villa OlmoStory: Two hundred years under steam

    The paddle steamer Concordia under way, black funnel and the villas of the shore behind.

  2. The Brunate funicular

    The funicular between Como and Brunate, designed by the engineer brothers Villoresi, opens to the public. Planned to run on water, by gravity, it works instead with a steam winch because there is not enough water; in 1911 it switches to electric motors.

    Place: Como–Brunate FunicularStory: When the railway reached the lake

    The red car of the Como–Brunate funicular climbing, the city below.

  3. The Volta Exhibition burns

    A spark from two electric wires sets fire to the wooden pavilions of the exhibition built on the lakeshore for the centenary of the battery: they burn in less than an hour, with many of Volta's relics. Within a month the engineer Eugenio Linati rebuilds them, and the exhibition reopens on 20 August.

    Place: ComoStory: The battery, the fire and the Tempio