Samolaco comes from the Latin Summus Lacus, head of the lake, and until the Middle Ages that is exactly what it was: the village stood at the northern end of Lake Como, which then reached this far, where the lake of Mezzola now lies. Then the water went away. After the flood of 1520 the Adda changed course and the silt laid down on these lands pushed the lakeshore further south, leaving the head of the lake in the middle of the plain. Something similar had already happened to the church of San Giovanni all'Archetto, buried in the early fifteenth century by sand and gravel and raised up so that mass could still be said: they managed until 1424.
There is another absence in this municipality: a place called Samolaco does not exist. It is a scattered municipality, and the town hall is in the hamlet of Era; the others are San Pietro, Somaggia, Casenda and Giumello. On the shore of the Mezzola stands the little temple of San Fedelino, built where by tradition the saint was martyred, and whose remains were found here in 964. Two thousand eight hundred and eighty-four inhabitants in the province of Sondrio.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Samolaco
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
