Lecco
Lecco is a city of approximately 47,000 inhabitants in Lombardy, Northern Italy, north of Milan. It lies at the end of the south-eastern branch of Lake Como. The Bergamo Alps rise to the north and east, cut through by the Valsassina of which Lecco marks the southern end.
The lake, narrows to form the River Adda, so bridges were built to improve road communications with Como and Milan. There are four bridges crossing the river Adda in Lecco: the Azzone Visconti Bridge, the Kennedy Bridge, the Alessandro Manzoni Bridge, and a railroad bridge.
Lecco was also Alpine Town of the Year in 2013.
Lecco obtained the title of city on 22 June 1848, and was elevated to province by decree of the President of the Republic of 6 March 1992.
Known for being the place where the writer Alessandro Manzoni set The Betrothed, the city is located in one of the vortices of the Larian Triangle. It overlooks the eastern branch of Lake Como and is included in the Orobic Prealps, between the Grigne mountain chain and the Resegone.
As strategic crossroads for Valtellina, Lecco assumed increasing importance during the Middle Ages when it was annexed to the Duchy of Milan following the Peace of Constance. During the second half of the 19th century, under the Austrian dominion, the city went through a particularly flourishing period during which palaces and arcades in neoclassical style were constructed. After the unification of Italy, Lecco established itself as one of the most important industrial centers of the nation thanks to the development of the steel industries, already active in the 12th century. For this reason, Lecco is also called "the Iron city".
Lecco has a population of 46,831 inhabitants, as of 2021.
Etymology
The origin of the toponym Lecco is not certain: it probably has a Celtic origin words that mean lake. Shortly before the year 1000 B.C., some populations of Gauls and Celts migrated to the territory of Lecco for trade. "Leucos" was the name given by the Gauls who inhabited these areas until Romans transformed the denomination into Leucum under Julius Caesar’s domination around 200 B.C.; so the hypothesis put forward by historians who have identified in Lecco the Roman city founded in 95 b.C. by Licinius Crassus in the Larian area with the name of Leucera was excluded.History
Celtic and Roman periods
In 1988, excavations of the Civic Museums of Lecco led to the discovery of a village of the Culture of Golasecca at the Rocca di Chiuso. The settlement of the Golasecchiani Celts in the area precedes the arrival of the Celts by more than 4 centuries.In 2005, other excavations of the Civic Museums of Lecco and the University of Bergamo unearthed the oldest metallurgical production site in the entire Alpine arc at piani d'Erna.
The Middle Ages
As the nodal point of several streets that put Lombardy in communication with the territories of Oltralpe, the region becomes the scene of clashes and decisive battles. The fortified system of Lecco became the seat, with the Carolingian, of an important Committee entrusted to the Attonid family. In 960, Lecco was submitted to the lordship of the Archbishop of Milan.Throughout the Middle Ages and the Modern Age, the name of Lecco did not indicate an inhabited center but included the whole area between the lake and Valsassina. Lecco was a polycentric settlement, in which the various districts were closely interdependent, each with functional and economic specialization.
The Municipal and Viscount period
In 1117, a ten-year war broke out pitting many villages of the lakes of Como and Lugano against Milan, of which Lecco was an ally. The inhabitants of Lecco took part in the battle and in March 1125, Como had to capitulate and the victors set it on fire.Later, Lecco became involved in the struggles between the powerful Milanese families Visconti and Torriani. In 1296, the struggles led Matthew I Visconti to destroy the village giving orders that it would never rise again. Despite the destruction, Lecco was rebuilt and reconquered by Azzone Visconti. Throughout the period the community of Lecco, which included the entire current municipal territory, evolved as a free municipality with its statutes and, until 1757, was de facto a small autonomous state, but inserted in the largest Duchy of Milan.
Spanish domination
With the fall of the Duchy of Milan, Lecco passed to Spanish dominium and, under Charles V, was transformed into a military stronghold. In this period, it suffered, as all Milanese territory, from plagues and famines, which Manzoni admirably described in The Betrothed. In 1714, Lombardy passed to the control of Habsburgs of Austria.Austrian domination
In 1784, Joseph II of Austria visited the city and decided to destroy the walls. With the descent of Napoleon and the birth of the Cisalpine Republic in 1797, the Riviera di Lecco is part of the ephemeral Mountain Department. In 1799, Russian and French troops fought here during the War of the Second Coalition. In 1814, after the final defeat of Napoleon, the Austrian army regained possession of the region and permanently brought Lecco back to the province of Como in 1816 and definitively divides the city into many small municipalities that will be re-established in 1923, during the Fascist 20th anniversary.In the period of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Veneto, Lecco experienced positive effects: numerous interventions of modernization and development of the territory, such as the introduction of an efficient bureaucracy, the increase of the cadastre and industrial development that led to widespread well-being.
From Risorgimento to the post-war periods
In the 19th century, Lecco became one of the beating hearts of Italian culture: the Scapigliati, a famous group of Milanese writers made Maggianico one of their favorite meeting places. The cultural ferment of the period was also associated with political ferment, and Lecco and its inhabitants played a very important role in the Lombard Risorgimento.When the Milanese insurrection against Austria started in March 1848, a priest, Don Antonio Mascari, incited rebellion from the pulpit, but the insurrection that took place on the night between 18th and March 19 was unsuccessful. By decree of 22 June 1848, the provisional government of Lombardy promoted Lecco to the rank of City, thanks to the contribution that the city was making to the Cause of Risorgimento. However, Lecco was again downgraded to Borgo in 1859.
In 1859, with the Second War of Independence, Lecco and Lombardy were conquered by the Kingdom of Sardinia and, in the same year, it re-entered the title of City.
In 1923, the municipal territory, which has now become insufficient to contain urban expansion, was greatly expanded with the aggregation of the neighboring municipalities of Acquate, Castello Sopra Lecco, Germanedo, Laorca, Rancio di Lecco and San Giovanni alla Castagna, as well as part of the municipal territory of Maggianico; in 1928, the remaining part of Maggianico was also aggregated.
Climate
Lecco is the northernmost city in Italy with a humid subtropical climate, only slightly softer than Milan. Despite being in a parallel dominated by a humid continental climate, the territory is well sheltered from the mountain ranges, and from the climatic point of view, enjoys the beneficial influences of the lake's waters and the breath of the Tivano that blows from the Valtellina from the northeast all year round in the early hours of the morning. Its absence indicates bad weather. Breva is another wind that runs towards the lake, from the south to the north and indicator of good weather.Geography
«That branch of the Lake of Como, which turns toward the south between two unbroken chains of mountains, presenting to the eye a succession of bays and gulfs, formed by their jutting and retiring ridges, suddenly contracts itself between a headland to the right and an extended sloping bank on the left, and assumes the flow and appearance of a river.»The municipal territory covers an area of about. It is located in a wide valley bordered by the Prealps to the east and Lake Lario to the west, at the point where Lake Lario ends and the Adda river resumes its course and then re-expands into Lake Garlate. The territory is crossed by three main streams: the Gerenzone, the Calderone and the Bione. The mountains that surround the natural, wide valley are: to the north Monte Coltignone and San Martino, to the east mount Due Mani, Pizzo d'Erna and Resegone, to the south the Magnodeno, to the west, on the right bank of the Adda River, is Mount Barro. On the Adda river, near the Azzone Visconti bridge, there is the small Viscontea Island.
The territory has a very variable altitude distribution: it ranges from above sea level in the lake area to the maximum altitude of above the sea level of Mount Resegone and this condition offers the city three different areas characterized by different morphologic and climatic characteristics.
The hydrography consists mainly of the stretch of the Adda river leaving the eastern branch of Lake Como and a series of streams, with their tributaries, which originate in the mountain range.
Lecco is delimited, to the north rises the massif of Monte Coltignone, mainly of limestone and dolomia of Esino, directly overlooking the lower peaks, such as Monte San Martino, Monte Melma, and Monte Albano. To the east, the Resegone group, which, with its 1875 meters above the level of the sea, dominates the city characterizing the Lombard landscape up to Milan. Resegone is so named because of its multiple rocky teeth that, seen from the town, make it resemble a saw of gigantic size; Monte Serada dominates imposingly with its offshoots, which are the Piani d'Erna and the Pian Serada. To the southeast, beyond Maggianico, the greatest elevation is represented by the Magnodeno. To the west, there are the hills of north-eastern Brianza, among which stands out Mount Barro in which a regional park was established to protect local flora and fauna.