Skip to content

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 century of the grand hotels'All dates

4dates

Renaissance and foreign rule

1450–1699 · 1 date

  1. 1565–1570

    Cardinal Gallio's villa at Cernobbio

    Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio, born at Cernobbio, has a summer residence built on the lake to a design by Pellegrino Tibaldi. In 1815 it is bought by Caroline of Brunswick, who names it Villa d'Este.

    Place: Villa d'Este, CernobbioStory: The century of the grand hotels

    Villa d'Este's long pale front on the shore, with yellow awnings on the ground floor and Cernobbio's houses on the hill behind.

Nineteenth century

1800–1899 · 2 dates

  1. A hotel at Villa Cipressi

    The Venini family opens a hotel at Villa Cipressi, in Varenna, and runs it until 1864. In the same years, around 1825, Abbondio Genazzini's inn on the shore at Bellagio becomes a proper hotel.

    Place: Villa Cipressi GardensStory: The century of the grand hotels

    Villa Cipressi at Varenna from the water, its cypresses stepping down to the lake.

  2. The year of the grand hotels

    Villa d'Este, at Cernobbio, becomes a hotel. In the same year the Frizzoni family's neoclassical villa at Bellagio opens as the Grand Hotel Bellagio, and Antonio Mella opens the Hotel Grande Bretagne on the Bellagio lakefront.

    Place: Villa d'Este, CernobbioStory: The century of the grand hotels

    The villa seen from above among the cypresses and trees of the park, with the blue lake and the far shore behind.

Twentieth century

1900–1999 · 1 date

  1. The Grand Hotel Tremezzo

    Enea Gandola opens a long Art Nouveau hotel on the shore at Tremezzo, with lifts and electric signs from the start.

    Place: Grand Hotel TremezzoStory: The century of the grand hotels