The walk round Dongo takes 45 minutes on foot, visits excluded. It touches the square of the events of April 1945 that Camminacittà says decided the end of the war, an old village with a Romanesque church, the stream from which the ironworks drew their water, the sanctuary of the Madonna delle Lacrime and the archpriestly church of Santo Stefano.
The route is the one from the Camminacittà project (Iubilantes with the Comunità Montana Valli del Lario e del Ceresio), «Sulle vie del ferro e della grande storia» («On the paths of iron and great history»): an urban route in two stages, of tourist difficulty, starting in piazza Paracchini and ending at the archpriestly church of Santo Stefano. This guide follows its sequence, adds the places the site already has on file, and says, for each, when you can really go in. The timings are those of Camminacittà, consulted on 5 October 2026 (pages updated in 2021 and 2024).
The walk at a glance
| Stage | Length | Walking time | Elevation change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. From piazza Paracchini to Santa Maria in Martinico | about 760 m | 15 minutes | about 20 m up |
| 2. From Santa Maria in Martinico to Santo Stefano | about 1,270 m | 30 minutes | about 20 m down |
The two stages add up to a little over 2 kilometres and 45 minutes, visits excluded; the highest point is 220 metres. The surface changes often: porphyry setts, asphalt, stone paving and cobbles.
Piazza Paracchini and the End of the War Museum
The walk starts in piazza Paracchini, named after Giulio Paracchini, a partisan commander killed in a roundup by the Black Brigades in April 1945. On the square stands the plain neoclassical facade of Palazzo Manzi, built in the early decades of the 19th century for the Polti Petazzi family: Camminacittà says it is traditionally attributed to Pietro Gilardoni but was perhaps designed by Carlo Polti. The palace houses the Museo della Fine della Guerra, opened in 2014, with documents and images on the events of April 1945 on Lake Como.
In 2014 a project of the Province of Como called «La fine della Guerra» and paid for by Regione Lombardia laid out four themed routes across the territory, with information panels. Two panels are on the facade of Palazzo Manzi; a third, on the lakefront in front of the square, marks the exact place where, on 28 April 1945, the leaders of the Social Republic taken together with Mussolini between Musso and Dongo were shot. Camminacittà notes that the bullet marks are still visible on the lakeside railing.
From the palace you can make, to the right, a detour of about a hundred metres into via Scalini, a narrow porphyry alley between old houses, to see two doorways with coats of arms carved in Musso marble. Then you take via Mercato, which leads to the village.
Martinico
Martinico is the old core of Dongo: lanes and courtyards that open onto a small square, where the Romanesque church of Santa Maria in Martinico stands. Inside are fragments of frescoes from the 14th, 15th and 17th centuries; among the artists Camminacittà mentions the Fiamminghino. On the churchyard a plaque recalls the old cemetery, documented from 1412 and used until 1910. According to Camminacittà the church is usually open.
Shortly after the church, going up via interna a Martinico and via dell’Erbolo, a flight of six steps leads to the old wash house of the village, recently restored, with four basins and a wooden roof. Back on the route you go down via Tolomeo Gallio and via Iginio Gentile, where stands the nursery that in 1955, with funding from Falck, became the «Casa dei Bambini» run on the Montessori method.
The Albano stream and the ironworks
You reach the right bank of the Albano, in via Irene Rubini Falk. Here the route shows a water conduit that fed the plant of the Ferriere di Dongo, a little further upstream: from the Rubini to the Falck, from 1990 to new owners, to the dismissals of the company occupying the area in July 2026, according to the local press. It is not a visitable stop: it is looked at from the road. You cross the new bridge and take viale della Rimembranza, opened in 1926.
The sanctuary of the Madonna delle Lacrime
The sanctuary of the Madonna delle Lacrime grew around a country chapel with a Marian image that, according to tradition, wept on 6 September 1553. An 18th-century portico precedes the church; inside, two chapels beside the presbytery hold the wooden sculptures of fra Diego da Careri, a Last Supper and a Crucifixion of 1648-1653. Next door is the Franciscan convent, famous for a library of about 18,000 volumes that includes some thirty incunabula and more than six hundred books printed in the 16th century. Along the wall of the convent garden, in a small rest area, a boulder with the coat of arms of Arromanches-les-Bains, a town in Normandy, commemorates ten years of twinning with Dongo (1998-2008).
Next to the convent is the bus stop: Camminacittà lists the C10 for Como, Menaggio and Colico, the C17 for Garzeno, the C18 for Livo and the C19 for Pianello, Morbegno and Sondrio; check the timetable again.
Santo Stefano and the square
From the sanctuary you go back up to the main road and take via dei Cossoni, beside the Casa del Vescovo, the building that Carlo Romanò, bishop of Como, bought in 1854 as a holiday residence and where he died in 1855 (today, writes Camminacittà, home of the Alto Lario civic music institute). You come to the square of the collegiate church of Santo Stefano, a pieve since the 12th century and rebuilt in the 18th after repeated floods: inside are frescoes by Carlo Scotti and Giulio Quaglio and stucco statues by Stefano Salterio. According to Camminacittà it is usually closed; Mass times are on the parish website.
From the square, looking south, the spur of the Sasso di Musso drops sheer into the lake, with the little church of Sant’Eufemia tied to the memory of the Medeghino: up there are the ruins described on the page of the Castello di Musso, in the neighbouring comune. To the right is the memorial area for the fallen, with the monuments of the Alpini, the Carabinieri and the Finanzieri.
Practical information
- Source of the data. Lengths, times, elevation changes and surfaces come from the Camminacittà project (Dongo path 1 and its two stages). This guide offers no GPS track.
- Cautions. The Camminacittà page flags steps, thresholds and crossings of the main road: the route is not free of obstacles.
- Museum. The Museo della Fine della Guerra is open from April to October from Tuesday to Sunday, with hours and fares given on its page; from November to March by booking only.
- Churches. Santa Maria in Martinico is usually open; Santo Stefano usually closed; for the sanctuary of the Madonna delle Lacrime we have no official hours.
- Getting there. Camminacittà says the start can be reached by bus and that there is parking near the start.
Sources
- Camminacittà, Dongo, path 1: Sulle vie del ferro e della grande storia
- Camminacittà, Dongo 1, stage 1 and stage 2
- Camminacittà, Dongo, points of interest
- The sources for each stop are on their own pages.