LAKE COMO ESSENCE English PRODUCTION Como and the Lake Como area is a land of creativity; the home of silk and fabrics. These have developed through the expertise of craftsmen with tradition and innovation being cleverly combined with a real will to penetrate international markets by achieving excellence in all sectors of the textile industry. The Lake Como region, known here as the Lario, is a place of great beauty, where tourism has developed new hospitality approaches to suit all kinds of tourism. Behind the new ideas for the industry there Produzione SistemaComo2015_SviluppoComo is a renewed cultural model In collaborazione con that draws on the charm of its Padiglione Italia Expo historic villas, greenhouses Gerardo Monizza and gardens which have been LakeComo Essence Versione. Inglese enhanced by landscaping projects. Progetto grafico. Nodo The strands come together Disegni. Tommaso Nava Copertina. Olocreativefarm Como through the efforts of the whole horticultural sector as well Edizione NodoLibri Agosto 2015 NodoMedia, as inventive boating projects. via Borsieri 16 22100 Como Brianza is a region notable for its www.nodolibrieditore.it agriculture, as well as woodcraft [email protected] and engineering. Out of these has Associato Editori del Lago di Como developed furnishing design in e Associati a sophisticated industry whose Stampa TECNOGRAFICA srl - Lomazzo (Como) ISBN 978-88-7185-262-1 value is acknowledged worldwide. THE ENVIRONMENT, RESEARCH AND INNOVATION THE LANDSCAPE AND CULTURE Lake Como, or the Lario, is Como is the hometown of synonymous with nature and Alessandro Volta, who gave us beauty. It is place imbued with art the electric battery, and since and culture and set in a wonderful that time the city has never landscape studded by historic tired of its work in research houses, parks and gardens and and development. Today there surrounded by mountains. Visitors are universities and higher can get involved in such sports education establishments and as rowing, sailing, windsurfing research centres in the fields of and golf. The wellness industry textiles, wood, engineering and welcomes an international pure science. tourism with a predilection for The knowledge economy luxury and indulging itself in active and the school-enterprise passions like cycling, walking and system have led to new the even climbing. development of new processes Food and wine have increasingly and the designing of new found ways of reinventing products, as well as the search, themselves with an ongoing through experimentation search for recipes that bridge and the filing of numerous traditional and contemporary patents, for new materials experience. Lovers of culture, and technologies, especially and especially enthusiasts of in the areas of sustainable architecture can rediscover fine development. Romanesque, Baroque and Como and Brianza are ideal Rationalist examples, while the places, with their range of contemporary scene is also well workshops and laboratories like represented. those of Como NExT science and Culture also means music, with technology park, for start-ups the opera and concerts as well as paving the way for all kinds of theatre, cinema, museums and innovation and revolutions of exhibitions. current models. Introduction Lake Como and Brianza are lands of great beauty for tourism but are also extremely productive in terms of enterprise. There is the happy combination of the water of the lakes (Lario/Como and Ceresio/Lugano and then the smaller lakes of Montorfano, Alserio, Pusiano, Segrino, Annone) and of the rivers and streams and, rising above them all, the hills that embrace their northern confines while opening up to the Brianza region that stretches from Varese to Lecco and on to Monza. The notes that follow provide a brief narrative of these beauties of place, mentions of some of the personalities who have lived here and a look at the civil and religious buildings, villas, palaces and townhouses that have been so often been built with great skill and imagination. The notes below also tell the story of the great industriousness of the people of Como. For centuries now they have been known as experimenters, innovators, researchers, manufacturers, artisans and industrialists. Reading up on the history of the province of Como and the people who have made it great means the visitor will be able to enjoy the area in new ways, with a privileged perspective on a quick and fascinating flight through and over this history and this landscape on a fascinating journey of discovery. 4 Beauty at the lake Ancient Como, its stupendous lake, industrious Brianza: these are almost clichés. Common places perhaps, but Como and Brianza are also brand names for an area with a worldwide image for success and exports. These qualities have made them a magnet for famous visitors, chance encounters, loves at first sight. It has been a place of where acquaintances, business, contracts and contacts of all kinds have flourished since time immemorial. Where elsewhere only livestock grazed, here people were already on holiday; when the roads were perilous and people casually sailed the open waters, when travel was slow here it was already fast, yet quiet. The town was small and welcoming and relatively safe with its city walls guarded by towers, surrounded by streams and separated from the world by a ring of hills. The area had been inhabited since prehistoric times in the Convalle flats between the hills. Just four roads connected Como to the four cardinal points and this has remained fundamentally true even up to our own times. The lake bathed the northern shore to hew the rounded shape that remains a characteristic feature of Como known to all. A little further up are the broader spaces and the first towns of Blevio and Torno to the east and Cernobbio and Moltrasio to the west. The lake stretches on and on for almost seventy kilometres of lively water of the most varied hues. It is deep blue beneath a terse sky, emerald green when presaging a coming storm and slate grey when the clouds drench the lake area. They are colours that bring with them opposing feelings and emotions for tourists and inhabitants alike. At one time they literally dyed the waters of the rivers that flowed relentless into Lake Como. These multi- 5 coloured but poisonous tributaries flowed down bearing the residues of dyes from the silk and textile works. For years they disgorged their waste from the banks of the lake. Fortunately, for at least some decades now, this panchromatic effluent disturbs neither eyes nor lungs. The industrial age has evolved and moved away from the lakeside to more accessible areas of the province allowing the water and the air to breathe again and restoring the environment’s balance. The ecological era has brought with it new and good habits to the people of Como and to their vision of work. Lake Como was undoubtedly beautiful then too, with all the craziness of it hues. The passenger boats paid little mind to the pollution and the tourists also liked the grey smoke of the old factories, wafted around by the winds that pushed the boat and lifted the hats and scarves of ladies travelling for pleasure on carefree holidays. Thousands of period photographs testify to those times, as do many many advertising posters. Endeavour first and foremost Como and Lake Como has always been a borderland, a passageway and land of social tranquillity, as well as home to a bit of smuggling. It has also been a lake port with brisk trade in goods and ideas and so also a home to business, workshops and labs and invention; from the ancient woollen trade of Roman and medieval times to the felt and silk trades and lastly, and since time immemorial, a place where metals, wire and wood have been worked and produced. This very varied and productive environment has attracted people because of the beauty of the location, the industriousness of the people and the ability to turn every material into a thing of beauty with commercial value. It has boats, where shipwrights have bequeathed their expertise to an established modern 6 nautical industry known for its sophisticated design. There is the furniture, which has made the carpenter’s workshops of Cantù famous for their skills and taste in transforming solid wood, plywood and plastics for elegant shapes and colours. There has also however remained a strong focus on comfort and not just on high craft and material quality. Perhaps a few important steps in the process have been overlooked here, because there are also the decorators, gilders and carvers who have too contributed to the great changes to the construction model and the changing markets. Other important occupations have played vital parts in adding substance to the creativity, and notably those of planning, engineering, architecture, designing and the creation of new forms and materials in general. Woven and processed fabrics were in the last century the most creative of all the region’s products and launched a whole textile industry linked to the magical world of national and international fashion. Como’s fabrics were well known and turned up in the smartest shops in Milan. Great tailors used them for haute couture and aristocrats and the rich Bourgeoisie could not get enough of them. Just keep on working These processes required technical ability and constant adaptations to new needs. The creation of textiles went from the handloom to the mechanised wooden loom and then the metal frame and hence on to today’s programmable frames controlled by sophisticated computer systems. The outstanding feature of adaptability to the needs of creativity has however remained a constant, with ever-new combinations of yarn, texture, colour, design and printing. While the workmanship has always been characterised by the common thread of speed, safety 7 and the very highest quality.