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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

Only the dates from the story ‘The Comacine masters'All dates

6dates

Antiquity

To the 5th century · 2 dates

  1. 5th century

    A baptistery on the Isola Comacina

    A hall for baptism, decorated with mosaics and frescoes, stands on the island. Its remains came to light in the twentieth-century excavations around the small church of San Giovanni.

    Place: Isola ComacinaStory: The Comacine masters

  2. 5th or 6th century

    The baptistery of Gravedona

    A baptistery with a mosaic floor and an octagonal basin for baptism by immersion is built at Gravedona. The Romanesque church of Santa Maria del Tiglio, in bands of light and dark stone, later rises over its remains; the baptistery came to light in the excavations of 1953.

    Place: Santa Maria del TiglioStory: The Comacine masters

    The banded tower of Santa Maria del Tiglio at Gravedona, floodlit at night.

Middle Ages

6th century to 1449 · 3 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. Urban II consecrates Sant'Abbondio

    Outside the walls of Como, along the old Via Regina, the Benedictines have been rebuilding the church of Sant'Abbondio since 1010: a nave and four aisles and twin bell towers beside the apse. Pope Urban II, passing through Como, consecrates it.

    Place: Basilica of Sant'AbbondioStory: The Comacine masters

    An arched window in the pale stone wall of the apse: the frame is carved with dense interlaced bands, two slender columns carry the inner arch, the jambs alternate white and grey blocks and the glass is patterned with circles; above runs a sawtooth band beneath an interlaced frieze.

  3. 1252–1257

    The cloister of Piona

    Prior Bonaccorso de Canova, from Gravedona, has the abbey's cloister built at his own expense, as two inscriptions record. The capitals, each one different, carry hooked leaves, eagles with spread wings and small heads; the builders' names are unknown.

    Place: Piona AbbeyStory: The Comacine masters

    The Romanesque cloister at Piona abbey, its paired colonnettes around an inner lawn.

Eighteenth century

1700–1799 · 1 date

  1. 1711–1753

    The Carloni brothers remake the church at Scaria

    The brothers Diego and Carlo Innocenzo Carloni remake the church of Santa Maria for Scaria, their home village, with stucco and frescoes. They are among the artists of the Val d'Intelvi who work all over Europe: Carlo Innocenzo also paints in Ljubljana Cathedral and in the palaces of Vienna.

    Place: Santa Maria and Museum of Sacred Art, ScariaStory: The Comacine masters

    The nave with walls and vault covered in stucco and frescoes, down to the high altar at the end.