Cremenaga lies on the left bank of the Tresa, the river that joins Lake Lugano to Lake Maggiore, and is closed on the other side by a mountain ridge: its natural link runs north, over a bridge with a customs post leading to Ponte Cremenaga, a hamlet of the Swiss comune of Tresa. That geography once became a legal fact: during the Spanish rule of Lombardy the village was simply forgotten by the Iberian authorities, and lived in effect in symbiosis with Switzerland, its church depending on the Swiss parish of Sessa. It was the Austrians who reminded it of its duties — and even in 1754 Cremenaga restated that it considered itself Swiss territory.
The coat of arms says the same things: a golden C for the name, two wavy blue bands on green for the river, and a golden tower. Here too the administrative perimeter has moved: the village had a hundred and one inhabitants in 1805, in 1809 it was annexed to Marchirolo, and by 1853 it counted two hundred and eight. The mountain that separates it from the rest of Italy is called Monte Sette Termini, the mountain of the seven boundary stones.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Cremenaga
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Cremenaga, but an easy day trip away.