The name holds together two different things. La Costa is the row of hamlets on the slope above Lovere, Corti, Branico, Qualino, Flaccanico and Ceratello; Volpino is the northernmost nucleus, watching the mouth of the Val Camonica where the Oglio runs into Lake Iseo. Lorenzi derived the whole name instead from a castra Wulpinii, an old fortified area. The land climbs from the lake shore to the summit of Monte Alto.
That outpost at the entrance to the valley cost Bergamo and Brescia three wars. It began when the vassal of the Brescian bishop, ruined by military spending, sold the castle to Bergamask families; the bishop invoked an old law forbidding the sale of a fief without the owner's consent, and the quarrel passed through the pope and through Frederick Barbarossa, who took the castle and then let Bergamo keep it. The peace of 3 August 1198 ordered it destroyed and split the village, the upper part to Brescia, the lower to Bergamo; on 7 June 1219 the consuls of the two cities settled the final division into Volpino Superiore and Volpino Inferiore. The castle hill is gone: it was made of volpinite, the gypsum named after the place, and the quarry carried it away.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Costa Volpino
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Costa Volpino, but an easy day trip away.