Patron saint festival
Feast of Saint Michael
📅 Every year, on 29 September
On 29 September Mapello celebrates Saint Michael in the church dedicated to him; the village also preserves the sanctuary of the Madonna di Prada.
Mapello lies on the slopes of Monte Canto, in the Isola bergamasca, and first appears in the will of the gasindio Taidone, May 774, which names a casa massaricia in fundo Mapello and a Roteperto of Mapello. The name has no clear origin: it may point to the position on the hill, from Lombard mappa, cauliflower, or mapp, ears of maize; mapèl, monkshood, is thought less likely. In the Middle Ages the Isola, fought over by Guelphs and Ghibellines and then by mercenary companies, came to be called the triangle of hunger.
The village was known for its sandstone, used for ornament and facing: quarryman and stonecutter were common trades here, along with the carter who hauled it to where it would be worked. All of it has gone. The sanctuary of the Madonna di Prada, already standing in 1482, keeps a fresco of the Madonna delle Grazie: drops of water were said to come from the Virgin's eyes, taken then for tears and able to heal the sick, until a woman washed her dog in it and the miracle stopped.
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Mapello 1
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Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Mapello
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Mapello, but an easy day trip away.
Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta 📍 Mira · 9.2 km The sanctuary of the Madonna Mora at Borbiago di Mira, with Andrea Briosco's statue and Diziani's great canvas. Chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena 📍 Mira · 10 km The parish church of Oriago, with a canvas attributed to Titian's brother and a bell tower with octagonal belfry. Chiesa di San Pietro Apostolo in Bosco 📍 Mira · 10 km The church of Bosco Grande in Mira, rebuilt in the twentieth century beside its sixteenth-century bell tower. Villa Foscari 📍 Venice · 13 km Palladio's Malcontenta on the Brenta: a temple of brick disguised as stone, reached by boat. Duomo di San Giovanni Battista 📍 Mira · 12 km The late-Romanesque church of Gambarare, with a Callido organ and almost five centuries of priests chosen locally. ponte della Libertà 📍 Venice · 17 km The four-kilometre bridge with which Venice, in 1846, stopped being an island: the lagoon crossing.