Ponteranica lies at the foot of the Maresana hill, in the province of Bergamo; the Morla stream that crosses it rises here. The name appears in documents first as Poltraniga, then Poltranica; its origin is unclear, and some link it to Ranica, beyond the hill. The earliest charters naming it, in the twelfth century, add the district of Prato della Rovere, later Petos. Guelph in allegiance, the village stood in the front line of the Bergamo feuds and filled with fortifications: the castello della Moretta, with towers and bastions, stood above it. In 1404 the Ghibellines of Bergamo attacked Ponteranica and neighbouring Sorisole, pulled down the towers and left more than three hundred dead.
Venice reversed things: having sided with the Serenissima, Ponteranica won privileges and was held to be a separate land, outside tolls and taxes. Its arms show an uprooted tree on silver, crossed by a blue band, the Morla, with three stars said to stand for Ramera, Rosciano and Ponteranica itself. The church of Santi Vincenzo e Alessandro keeps the polyptych Lorenzo Lotto painted for the main chapel altar; its announcing angel has become the emblem of the painter's exhibitions.
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📅 Every year, on 27 July, unofficial patron of the town
Ponteranica celebrates Saint Pantaleon on 27 July, regarded as the town's unofficial patron; the official patron, Saint Alexander of Bergamo, is celebrated on 26 August.
📅 Every year, on 26 August
Ponteranica celebrates its official patron Saint Alexander of Bergamo on 26 August, in the Church of San Vincenzo e Sant'Alessandro; on 27 July, Saint Pantaleon, the town's unofficial patron, is also celebrated.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
