In 1910 the first lowland sanatorium in Italy was built at Ornago, inside a wood of Scots pines chosen because the air there was particularly good. It was the work of Giulio Banfi, a doctor from Vimercate, and it was paid for entirely by the local nobility, who received in return only their names on the pavilions: inside, everything was free, treatment included, and it served women suffering from consumption, worn out by work in the silk mills and the fields. Its fame grew to the point that patients came from Constantinople and from Alexandria in Egypt. It closed in 1999.
In 1714, after months of drought, three shepherd children found a spring not far from the village sanctuary. The Church long held it to be a natural occurrence, but the people did not: a cult grew up spontaneously around that spring, which is still called the Fontanella of Ornago, and the pool of water ended up on the town's coat of arms. On the same arms are those of the Verri family, because the tomb and ashes of Pietro Verri are in the sanctuary.
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📅 Every year, on 5 February; Pietro Verri rests at the Lazzaretto shrine
Ornago celebrates Saint Agatha on 5 February, in the church dedicated to her. The Shrine of the Beata Vergine del Lazzaretto, a feast destination on the second Sunday of Easter and the second Sunday of October, holds the tomb of Enlightenment thinker Pietro Verri.
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 Ornago, but an easy day trip away.
