Dongo (

Comasco Comasco or Comasque is a dialect of Western Lombard language spoken in the city and suburbs of Como Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label= Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. ...

: ) is a ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' in the

Province of Como The Province of Como ( it, Provincia di Como; german: Provinz Como; Comasco: ) is a province in the north of the Lombardy region of Italy and borders the Swiss cantons of Ticino and Grigioni to the North, the Italian provinces of Sondrio and L ...

in the Italian region

Lombardy (man), (woman) lmo, lumbard, links=no (man), (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , ...

. It lies on the northwestern shore of

Lake Como Lake Como ( it, Lago di Como , ; lmo, label=Western Lombard, Lagh de Còmm , ''Cómm'' or ''Cùmm'' ), also known as Lario (; after the la, Larius Lacus), is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of , making it the thir ...

between

Gravedona Gravedona was a comune of Como Province The Province of Como ( it, Provincia di Como; german: Provinz Como; Comasco: ) is a province in the north of the Lombardy region of Italy and borders the Swiss cantons of Ticino and Grigioni to the North ...

and Musso at the mouth of the Albano. It is north of

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

and about northeast of

Como Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label= Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Its proximity to Lake Como and to the Alps ...

. It was in Dongo, on 27 April 1945, that

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in ...

and other fascists, fleeing from

towards

Valtellina Valtellina or the Valtelline (occasionally spelled as two words in English: Val Telline; rm, Vuclina (); lmo, Valtelina or ; german: Veltlin; it, Valtellina) is a valley in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, bordering Switzerland. Tod ...

, were captured by

Urbano Lazzaro Urbano Lazzaro (November 4, 1924 – January 3, 2006) was an Italian resistance fighter who played an important role in capturing Benito Mussolini near the end of World War II. Lazzaro was born in Quinto Vicentino in the Veneto region. As ...

and other partisans. Dongo borders the following municipalities:

Colico Colico ( Comasque: or ; la, Colicum) is a city in the province of Lecco, Lombardy, Italy. It is situated on the northern arm of Lake Como, where the river Adda enters the lake. Colico is the most important city in the northern part of Lake ...

Consiglio di Rumo Consiglio di Rumo is a ''frazione'' of the '' comune'' of Gravedona ed Uniti , Province of Como, Lombardy, northern Italy, located about north of Milan and about northeast of Como, on the border with Switzerland. It was a separate '' comune'' u ...

, Garzeno, Germasino, Musso, Pianello del Lario, Stazzona.

Main sights

Palazzo del Vescovo

The Palazzo del Vescovo (Palace of the Bishop) was erected in the 17th century by the family of the

Marquis A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman ...

Cossoni. In 1854, Carlo Romanò, the Bishop of Como, acquired the building from the Cossoni family. In 1983 the Town of Dongo purchased the building. The citizens of Dongo, assisted financially by the Comunità Montana Alto Lario Occidentale, initiated the complete restoration of the Palazzo shortly thereafter. Still bearing its original name, the building currently houses the Civic Institute of Music "Alto Lario", and, since December 2003, the International Piano Academy Lake Como.

Palazzo Manzi

The Palazzo Manzi, facing across the main square on the lake front, now serves as the ''Municipio'' (centre of civic administration) for the ''comune''. Its ground floor houses the ''Museo della Fine della Guerra'' (Museum of the end of the war), reopened after refurbishment in April 2014 and formerly known as the ''Museo della Resistenza'' (Museum of the resistance). The museum provides audio and visual displays relating to the partisan movement in Dongo and the north Como area from the time of the

Italian armistice The Armistice of Cassibile was an armistice signed on 3 September 1943 and made public on 8 September between the Kingdom of Italy and the Allies during World War II. It was signed by Major General Walter Bedell Smith for the Allies and Brigad ...

in September 1943 up to the end of the war, and more specifically to the capture of Mussolini and other fascist leaders at Dongo in April 1945, and their subsequent execution.La Storia Ricomindi in Dongo, leaflet issued by the Museo della Fine della Guerra Dongo, April 2014.

Twin towns

Dongo is twinned with

Arromanches-les-Bains Arromanches-les-Bains (; or simply Arromanches) is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region of north-western France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Arromanchais'' or ''Arromanchaises''. Geography Arromanches-le ...

in Normandy.

References

External links

Official website

Website of the ''Museo della Fine della Guerra''
Cities and towns in Lombardy {{Como-geo-stub