Paladina

On the summit of the hill of Sombreno, which commands the whole area, there was a castle in the Middle Ages. Today a sanctuary stands in its place: the fortress has been replaced by a church, and of the castle only a tower remains. In the same hamlet there is another church with a crooked history, that of the Nativity of the Virgin and Saints Fermo and Rustico: it was built in the middle of the eighteenth century and consecrated only two hundred years later. Not everything that gets built becomes at once what it is supposed to be.

Three thousand nine hundred and ninety-six inhabitants in the province of Bergamo, on the left bank of the Brembo, which appears on the municipal arms as a wavy band. The name is debated: it may come from palatinum, on account of the small palaces put up when imperial officials often passed through these parts, or from the pile dwellings of the first settlements on the river bank. The earliest document is from 856 and concerns the building of a church dedicated to Sant'Alessandro, later rebuilt in 1179. The cyclist Felice Gimondi lived in the village.