Until 1817 the way up to Brunate was a mule track, and from that year the Sentierone: a staircase of 1630 steps that starts in Como, passes the former hermitage of San Donato and arrives in the village. Today the lower part is called salita San Donato and the upper part sentiero Alda Merini. Then, in 1894, the funicular arrived, and the village found itself seven minutes from the city: from up there, at seven hundred and fifteen metres, you can see the lake, the whole western arc of the Alps, the plain and the Apennines, which is why they call it the Balcony on the Alps.
On the municipal coat of arms there is a curved band with three stars: it may be the rainbow, often seen here, or the Milky Way. It was found at the end of the nineteenth century by the mayor Antonio Monti, in his family archive. On the first of August 1943 Brunate lost its autonomy and became a hamlet of Como; it got it back in July 1947, after a popular petition. Of the eclectic and Liberty villas that had made it an élite summer resort the buildings remain, but the hotels have almost all closed.
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📅 Every year, on 30 November
On 30 November Brunate celebrates its patron Saint Andrew the Apostle; the evening before, a torchlight procession reaches the parish church from a different town each year.
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.
Outside Brunate, but an easy day trip away.
