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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 monks' lake'All dates

6dates

Middle Ages

6th century to 1449 · 4 dates

  1. 607–617

    Agrippinus founds an oratory at Piona

    Agrippinus, Bishop of Como, builds an oratory dedicated to Saint Justina the martyr on the Olgiasca peninsula and prepares his own tomb there. A stone pillar kept at Piona records it; a small community, probably of hermits, was most likely already living there.

    Place: Piona AbbeyStory: The monks' lake

    The Piona inlet, the bay enclosed by the peninsula, the Alps behind.

  2. Second half of the 8th century

    A monastery on the mountain above Civate

    At the end of the Lombard kingdom a small monastery dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul is founded above Civate; legend credits King Desiderius with it. Between the 10th and the 11th century it becomes the Romanesque building of San Pietro al Monte, which can be reached only on foot.

    Place: Basilica of San Pietro al MonteStory: The monks' lake

    The oratory of San Benedetto at San Pietro al Monte, above Civate: a small stone church with slab roofs and a round apse with a little window, behind a stone wall that closes the terrace; lower down, beyond the bare woods, Lake Annone with villages round it and a road viaduct running past its tip, and in the distance mountains with snow on their summits under a blue sky.

  3. The first lands of the abbey of San Benedetto

    Rainaldus, Bishop of Como, climbs into the Val Perlana to settle a quarrel between the men of Isola and those of Lenno over the church of San Benedetto. He obtains a gift of land and grazing rights: it is the oldest document of the abbey.

    Place: San Benedetto in Val PerlanaStory: The monks' lake

    San Benedetto's facade and bell tower, among the meadows and woods of the Val Perlana.

  4. The Cistercians at Acquafredda

    Azzo, known as Pellegrino, gives the Cistercians of Morimondo land above Lenno for a monastery to keep the relics of Saints Agrippinus and Domenica, brought from the Isola Comacina. The name, ‘cold water', comes from a nearby spring; the church of Santa Maria dell'Uliveto is consecrated in 1193.

    Place: Acquafredda Abbey, LennoStory: The monks' lake

    The white bell tower and yellow church of the abbey on the hillside, among cypresses, with the lake and mountains behind.

Renaissance and foreign rule

1450–1699 · 1 date

  1. The convent at Varenna becomes a house

    Carlo Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, suppresses the Cistercian convent at Varenna, where too few nuns remain. In 1569 Paolo Mornico buys it and makes it a house: this is the origin of Villa Monastero.

    Place: Villa MonasteroStory: The monks' lake

    Villa Monastero from the balustrade over the lake, among palms and cypresses, the point of Varenna beyond.

Twentieth century

1900–1999 · 1 date

  1. Monks return to Piona

    After centuries of absentee abbots and private owners, a group of Cistercian monks arrives from Casamari and takes possession of the priory, which the businessman Pietro Rocca has given to their congregation. A community of monks has lived at Piona ever since.

    Place: Piona AbbeyStory: The monks' lake

    The abbey's Romanesque cloister with its paired columns.