Schignano has 874 inhabitants in the Val d'Intelvi, in a bowl closed in by mountains up to the Sasso Gordona, and it has no single centre: it is a scattered comune, made of hamlets. The old village stood lower down, and stayed there until the plague of the fifteenth century, which killed a great part of its people: it was then razed to the ground and covered over with lime, the disinfectant of those days. The survivors rebuilt it higher up, where Occagno stands today, and made a vow to the Madonna Addolorata to honour her every year. And so it has been done: since 1476 the wooden statue, which here they call the Madonna del Voto, goes out in procession every 27 December. Where the old village was, a chapel remains, and they call it the chapel of the lime.
The rest is the story of a poor community that governed itself. In 1589, at the pastoral visit of bishop Ninguarda, Schignano counted sixty-five hearths and about three hundred souls. In 1751 it was not held in fief, and to stay free it paid a redemption tax every fifteen years; decisions were taken by the convocato, the assembly of the "neighbours", which elected a mayor and a consul chosen from among the men over eighteen. Often they did not even elect the chancellor, so as not to pay his salary: the mayor did it all, and the public papers were kept in a chest inside the church.
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📅 Every year, on 15 August
On 15 August Schignano, a municipality of 874 inhabitants in the province of Como, celebrates its patroness Maria Santissima Assunta (Assumption of Mary).
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 Schignano, but an easy day trip away.
