For three centuries Valganna belonged to a hospital. The abbey of San Gemolo, founded in 1095 at Ganna, was extremely powerful: it held property all over the northern Varese country and controlled the castle of Frascarolo. In 1556 the Holy See suppressed its temporal power and transferred its goods and rights to the Ospedale Maggiore of Milan, which from then on was the village's lord. The abbey, for that matter, was born of a killing: tradition says that at the end of the tenth century Saint Gemolus was murdered here after chasing, together with Saint Imerius of Bosto, the brigands who had robbed the caravan he was travelling with — brigands from the Seprio, who controlled the passes between Switzerland and Milan. His body was buried where the abbey later rose.
On the coat of arms, granted in 1995, there are four firs and a bell tower: the firs are the four hamlets — Ganna, Ghirla, Boarezzo and Mondonico — and the bell tower is the abbey's, sheltering them all. The comune has two lakes, one for each centre: Ghirla's, much visited, and Ganna's, smaller, which has stayed natural with reed-grown banks. In winter it is so cold that they call this place the little Siberia of the Varese country. And two sculptors came out of this valley: Odoardo Tabacchi, born in 1836, and Giuseppe Grandi, born in 1843, one of the leading names of the Lombard Scapigliatura.
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📅 On 4 February at Ganna (Saint Gemolus) and on 25 July at Ghirla (Saint Christopher)
On 4 February Ganna, in Valganna, celebrates its patron Saint Gemolus; Ghirla has Saint Christopher as its patron instead, on 25 July.
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 Valganna, but an easy day trip away.
