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 ‘When the lake comes into town'All dates

6dates

Middle Ages

6th century to 1449 · 2 dates

  1. 1336–1338

    Azzone Visconti's bridge at Lecco

    Azzone Visconti, lord of Milan, has the bridge built over the Adda where the river leaves the lake. It has eight arches; the people of Como, convinced that its narrowing floods their town, obtain three more between 1354 and 1440.

    Place: Ponte Azzone ViscontiStory: When the lake comes into town

    The bridge and its arches over the water, the snow-capped mountains above Lecco behind.

  2. 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 · 1 date

  1. 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 · 2 dates

  1. The Olginate dam regulates the lake

    Downstream of Lecco, between the lakes of Garlate and Olginate, the Consorzio dell'Adda's dam goes into operation, with eight fourteen-metre openings. It holds back water during floods and releases it in dry spells, and it reduces the number of times Piazza Cavour in Como ends up under water.

    Place: LeccoStory: When the lake comes into town

    The Olginate dam on a sunny day: a row of concrete piers joined by a white walkway crosses the river, and between one pier and the next the water spills over the gates in a strip of white foam; behind, the calm lake, the houses of a town and rocky mountains, on the right a wooded slope and a house with a red roof, in the foreground blue-green water over a bed of pebbles and a grassy bank.

  2. 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