Lierna is a ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' in the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Lecco Lecco (, , ; ) is a city of approximately 47,000 inhabitants in Lombardy, Northern Italy, north of Milan. It lies at the end of the south-eastern branch of Lake Como (the branch is named ''Branch of Lecco'' / ''Ramo di Lecco''). The Bergamasqu ...

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

, in north-west Italy. It lies on the eastern shore of

Lake Como Lake Como ( , ) also known as Lario, is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of , making it the third-largest lake in Italy, after Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore. At over deep, it is one of the deepest lakes in Europe. ...

, about north of

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

and about north-west of

. Lierna borders the comuni of Esino Lario,

Mandello del Lario Mandello del Lario ( Lecchese: ) is an Italian town and ''comune'' in the province of Lecco, in Lombardy, on Lake Como. Since 1921, Mandello del Lario has been home to Moto Guzzi—the Italian motorcycle manufacturer, now a subsidiary of Piag ...

, Oliveto Lario and Varenna.

History

The first mention of Lierna dates to 854 AD, but Roman remains, including a

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

floor now in the Palazzo Belgioioso of

, attest to much earlier settlement. The name of the village may be of Roman or of

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

origin. Between 1035 and 1202 it was a

feud A feud , also known in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, clan war, gang war, private war, or mob war, is a long-running argument or fight, often between social groups of people, especially family, families or clans. Feuds begin ...

of the Monastery of San Dionigi in Milan. Lierna was contested between

and

Como Como (, ; , or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Nestled at the southwestern branch of the picturesque Lake Como, the city is a renowned tourist destination, ce ...

, and between the Della Torre and Visconti families. It passed into the hands of the Marchesino Stanga in 1499, and in 1533 to the of

Cremona Cremona ( , , ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po (river), Po river in the middle of the Po Valley. It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local city a ...

, who held it until 1788. Lierna became a ''comune'' in 1743, when it was separated from that of Mandello. In 1927 the Milanese sculptor Giannino Castiglioni opened a studio at his house in Lierna. He died in Lierna on 27 August 1971. He left some preparatory

plaster cast A plaster cast is a copy made in plaster of another 3-dimensional form. The original from which the cast is taken may be a sculpture, building, a face, a pregnant belly, a fossil or other remains such as fresh or fossilised footprints – ...

s to the comune; a museum to house them is under construction. In 1933 an incomplete

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

of '' Lariosaurus balsami'', a nothosaurid from the

Middle Triassic In the geologic timescale, the Middle Triassic is the second of three epoch (geology), epochs of the Triassic period (geology), period or the middle of three series (stratigraphy), series in which the Triassic system (stratigraphy), system is di ...

(circa 240 million years ago) of which the first example was discovered at Perledo, some 10 km north of Lierna, was found in a quarry in the ''frazione'' of Grumo. It is now in the Museo di Storia Naturale in the Palazzo Belgioioso of Lecco.

References

Cities and towns in Lombardy {{Lecco-geo-stub

History

See also

References