The name comes from the stream that crosses the village, running through woodland so dense that it looks black. The first inhabitants may have come from the Valsassina, as certain identical place names in the two valleys suggest; in the Middle Ages they made a reputation as charcoal burners, and their charcoal travelled beyond the Italian borders. When the upper Val Brembana passed to Venice, in the sixteenth century, Valnegra was made the head of the district Oltre la Goggia, which took in every municipality of the upper valley, and received a visit from Saint Charles Borromeo.
Its fortune turned because of a road: the Via Priula crossed the valley without passing through, and from then on began the emigration that has never stopped. Yet the village was the first in the valley to build itself a school, in 1866. In 1927 it was abolished and put together with Moio de' Calvi, Piazza Brembana and Lenna into the municipality of San Martino de' Calvi, and stood alone again only in 1956. The parish church of San Michele, of the mid-fifteenth century, holds paintings by Carlo Ceresa.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Valnegra
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Valnegra, but an easy day trip away.