Piazza Cermenati

Directly overlooking Lake Como, Piazza Cermenati is dedicated to Mario Cermenati, the founder of the Civic Museums of the city of Lecco and a great enthusiast for natural sciences. Growing up amidst the majestic mountains of Lecco’s territory, his path was already marked out as a great hiker and mountaineer and he was appointed chairman of the Lecco section of the Italian Alpine Club. 

Mario Cermenati’s statue, originally in bronze, was the work of the Roman artist Mario Rutelli. It was inaugurated in 1927 and located in the centre of the square near the port, where goods from the ships were unloaded. 

In 1943, since bronze was required for war materiel, the statue was replaced with the current marble version, the work of Francesco Modena. The inscription on the base of the statue was dictated by Giovanni Bertacchi, the Alpine poet born in Chiavenna, and the text still refers to the bronze, given that it dates back to 1927. Mario Cermenati died in 1924, three years before the monument’s inauguration, commissioned by his followers. 

The roots of this square lay in commerce: one of the largest and best attended markets in the area has been held here since 1149. It didn’t even close during the great plague of 1630!

An oddity: it is said that the statue was placed behind the Basilica di San Nicolò to annoy the clergy, who were not among Cermenati’s supporters due to his openly secular stance.