Dongo is in the upper part of Lake Como; situated in a small gulf on the delta of the Albano stream with a view of Monte Legnone and the northern Grigna.
The first part that was inhabited is in a position which overlooks the ward of Martinico. Subsequently the centre expanded in the plain crossed by the Albano stream, where an industrial area also developed.
Dongo was a feud of the Visconti family and from the 16th century, along with Gravedona and Sorico; it was part of the Territorio delle Tre Pievi It was then ceded by the Spanish to Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio.
In the village centre, at the harbour, is the neoclassical palace of the Manzi, which was designed by the architect Pietro Gilardoni. It has beautiful frescoes from thc Appiani School.
Today the building serves as the Town Hall. Near thc bridge over the Albano there is the fifteenth century Santuario della Madonna delle Lacrime; which is deemed to be miraculous.
SIGHTS:
The Church of Santa Maria in Martinico
Built in the llth century; restored and modified at the beginning of the 19th century; this church has a simple facade opened by a small cross-shaped window and a small side facade which dates back to the thirteenth century.
Inside there is a silver-gilt processional cross by F. Ser Gregori (1.513).
The Church of San Stefano
Of Romanesque origins; its present appearance derives from renovations made in the seventeenth ccntury.
lnside: there are frescoes from the fiftcenth and eighteenth centuries; a fourteenth centurt baptismal font and a stucco statue of San Salterio (1.771).
