Visit Lecco in 6 hours

Azzone Visconti rebuilt Lecco during 1330-1340.
The visible part of the city walls near Via Bovara are traces of the fortified village he wanted and then the Spanish strengthened in the sixteenth-century.

The basilica of St. Nicholas (Basilica di San Nicolò), patron saint of Lecco, sailors and boatmen, is placed close to the lake promenade, at the eastern side of the historic center of Lecco, just behind Piazza Cermenati.
It was built on the remains of the old town walls surrounding Lecco since from the 13th century. Nowadays some parts are still visible if you are in the near basilica’s parking.
Symbol of the basilica of St. Nicholas and of Lecco town too is its neo-Gothic bell tower

Piazza Cermenati overlooks lake Como, especially the Gulf of Lecco, which in the medieval times represented the port of the fortified village.
In the middle we find the statue of Mario Cermenati, founder of the civic museums of Lecco and tied to the figure of Antonio Stoppani. The square is close to Palazzo delle Paure, a museum center, hosting the Lecco Mountaineering Observatory and the Art Gallery.

Local and International contemporary art at Palazzo delle Paure (Palace of Fears) in Lecco, hosting a section of photography and graphics too.
It has a Neo-medieval eclectic style and was built at early 1900 on a part of the old town wall of the fortified village and until 1964 it was the office of the Customs House. Lecco’s citizens came there to pay their taxes, due to this its name of Palazzo delle Paure (Palace of Fears).

Ancient historical center and symbol of the fortified village. Here there was the castle of Lecco, until it was destroyed by the will of the Habsburgs, as well as the whole city wall. Piazza XX Settembre was called piazza del Mercato before assuming its current denomination in 1895. The actual appearance of the square is due to the work of the Lecco architect Giuseppe Bovara. In a house overlooking this square, at the current civic 43, the geologist Antonio Stoppani, author of the Bel Paese, was was born in 1824..

Viscontea Tower is in Piazza XX Settembre and it’s the visible trace of the old castle of Lecco, built in the fourteenth-century by will of Azzone Visconti, who wanted Lecco to be a fortified village.

In the city of The Betrothed for sure the monument to Alessandro Manzoni cannot miss. Inaugurated on October 11, 1891, it was strongly desired by Antonio Stoppani, who constituted a promotional committee and made a national appeal.
A bronze statue with 4 high reliefs on a granite base, three of which depicting the emblematic scenes of the novel: the kidnapping of Lucia, Renzo at the Lazzaretto and the marriage of The Betrothed.

Nostra Signora della Vittoria Sanctuary was wanted by the citizens of Lecco to commemorate the fallen people of the First World War, to whom the crypt is reserved to, in fact there the mortal remains of officers and soldiers, coming from the cemeteries of the front, are preserved.
It’s a Marian Sanctuary, consecrated by Cardinal Schuster in 1932, and a penitential church as Cardinal Martini indicated in 1997.
Every night at 7 o’clock the bell of the Sanctuary tolls to remind the fallen of the war.

The Teatro della Società is placed in the central piazza Garibaldi. Designed by the Lecco architect Giuseppe Bovara it was inaugurated on October 23, 1844, with “Anna Bolena” opera by Gaetano Donizetti.
The neoclassical building was built upon the request of a small number of families of Lecco, belonging to the nobility and the high middle class, but was immediately open to all citizenry.

A nice walk from the Monument to the Fallen to the road to Mandello. Great views of “that branch of lake Como” surrounded by mountains, moving your gaze to the Alps on the horizon. San Nicolò blesses us in the most exposed area of the lakefront, just opposite the monument of Antonio Stoppani. Here it is great to admire the sunset.

San Nicolò is the patron saint of Lecco, and the Basilica was dedicated to him. December 6th is a special day for children who receive apples to remember the gesture of the saint to poor girls.
The statue hosted in the Basilica depicts him with three apples. The statue of San Nicolò is located into lake Como, just in front the monument dedicated to Antonio Stoppani and near the mouth of the Gerenzone creek.
It is believed that in this area there was the dock of the port of Lecco, where numerous boats landed on the market days.

Certainly Lecco could not miss to remind the figure of Abbot Antonio Stoppani. He was born in Lecco and love so much the mountains of his land. He is considedered the father of Italian Geology and Paleontology, and was Cermenati’s master and inspirational model for so many naturalists of Lecco, who gave birth to the Civic Museums.
Author of the Bel Paese, he wrote a national appeal for the realization of the monument to Alessandro Manzoni in Lecco.