Brivio means bridge: the name comes from the Celtic briva, "crossing". It is something of a joke, because for almost five centuries the village had no bridge at all. One had been built in 1445, when Venice took Brivio and linked the two banks of the Adda; but with the peace of Lodi the river became a state border between the Serenissima and the Duchy of Milan, and the bridge was pulled down. The two banks were joined again only in 1917.
Before that the village stood on both sides: Brivium da za on this bank, Brivium de là on the other, with the castle and the two churches. Having become border land, Brivio concentrated on the left bank, beneath the castle that watches the river. In 1888, digging where the old baptistery had stood, two reliquaries came to light: of one every trace has been lost, the other is now in the Louvre, a small casket of embossed silver with the raising of Lazarus and the adoration of the Magi.
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📅 Every year, on the third Sunday of September; since 2003 the Italian Blues River Festival in July
Brivio celebrates the martyr saints Sisinius, Martirius and Alexander, together with Our Lady of Sorrows, on the third Sunday of September. Since 2003, the Italian Blues River Festival has been held on the first weekend of July.
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The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
