Monuments

Grava: a word which, amongst the frequent Ligurian roots of names still remaining in the altolario region, indicates a stony coast or headland.

Today Gravedona does not have the same aspect of when it was given its name: it is now characterized by the pastel colours of its houses immersed in the various shades of green which paint the background of that once stony headland, giving an air of calm and tranquillity. That headland, lapped by the blue waters of the lake, presents a mysterious colour which invites one to deep and thoughtful meditation.

Spread out at the foot of Sasso Pelo, laid in the alluvial plain of the Livo torrent called "Poncia" and stretched out across the gulf waters into which all of its history is reflected, it looks across to the mount Legnone, to the Christian conscript Piona and to the gates of Valtellina where the river Adda flows into the lake.

The Roots of an Identity

Its history can be related in its churches and monuments where all the cultures brought here by the major Strada Regina (Queen's Road) merge; this road has always been a precious link between the South of Italy via Milan-Como and Central-northern Europe.

Its history begins with the first roman settlers who overcome a former Ligurian-Celtic organization 10.42 11.05 of which we find evidence in the pagan sacral area later overridden by christianity as recorded in a VI century inscription kept in the nearby church of St.Vincenzo.

When a baptismal parish was built, it then became a rural centre of a federative
nature taking part in the ten-year war between Como and Milan (1118-1127), siding firstly with one army and then the other.

Then in 1522 Gravedona assumed the denomination of "Signoria o Feudo delle Tre Pievi" with the Duke Gian Giacomo De' Medici alias il Medeghino.

Later in 1580, it passed onto the eminent prelate Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio who bought the estate and title of Count from Philip II of Spain. Between the end of XVI and the beginning of the XX centuries, we register both from Gravedona and from surrounding villages a period of emigration of specialized workmanship in trades which needed the entrepreneurial abilities which are still today admired both in Italy and abroad.

“…Andando verso il ‘ramo di Colico ’vidi aprirsi d’un tratto il cielo
in alto sull’ora del tramonto incipiente,
e apparir sulla prima neve del Monte di San Primo
il crepuscolo del sole opposto e nascosto, roseo e azzurro.
Durò brevi istanti, e l’ammirazione della vista fu raddoppiata dalla sparizione scura e sollecita.
Ma non può dir di aver visto il lago chi non conosce Gravedona”.

(Da “Italia per Terra e per Mare”, in Autunno Lariano di Riccardo Bachelli)

Churches and Monuments

  S. Maria del Tiglio Churc
 S. Vincenzo Churc
 Gallio Palace
 S. Maria delle Grazie Churc
 SS. Gusmeo e Matteo Churc
 Little Church
 Church of hamlet