COMO, a city of Italy, capital of the province of its ow n name, at the south-west corner of the Lake of Como, in a beautiful valley surrounded by richly-clad mountains. It lies in 45° 48' 26" N. lat. and 9° 4' 45" E. long., and is distant twenty-eight miles by rail from Milan. The city proper is still surrounded by its ancient walls and towers: but two pretty extensive suburbs, known as Vico and St Agostino, have grown up outside—the former containing a large number of fine villas, and the latter devoted specially to manufacturing purposes. The principal buildings are the cathedral, the broletto or town hall, the churches of St Fedele and St Abondio, the Palazzo Giovio, with its library and collection of antiquities, the Gallio College, and the theatre. The cathedral, erected by the voluntary contributions of the citizens, is a structure of various dates and styles of architecture,—the earliest portions being by Lorenzo de’ Spaziof the end of the 14th century, while the cupola is the work of Guvara, an architect of the first half of the 18th. The most interesting, perhaps, of the monuments which it preserves, is that of Benedetto Giovio, an early historian of the city. The broletto dates from 1215, and is built of alternate courses of black and white marble; but of still greater value as an artistic effort is the church of St Abondio, a small but exquisite structure of the 11th century, built, it would seem, in the lower portions of Roman remains, and remarkable for an “apse of extraordinary height and richness rising between two tall campaniles.” There are extensive factories in Como for the spinning and weaving of silk; it also manufactures woollens, cotton, and soap; and there are iron-works in the immediate vicinity. To its position on the lake and its ...command of the Splügen and St Gotthard lines of communication, it is indebted for a considerable trade by way of transit and distribution. About a mile to the south of the town is the tower of Baradello, famous as the place where the Torriani of Milan were confined in cages by the Visconti party, over whom they had previously tyrannized. The population of Como is 24,350.
Como is readily identified with the ancient Comum, a city of Gallic origin, situated within the territory of the Galli Insubres. Though from an early period a flourishing and important centre, it never played a very conspicuous part in ancient history. Soon after the beginning of the 2d century b.c., the people of Comum joined the Insubres in an attack on the Romans; but they were defeated, and their city fell into the hands of the conquerors, and became a Roman colony. The first colonists, however, were unable to maintain themselves against the inroads of the Rhaetian Gauls; and additional settlers were sent down from time to time. Julius Caesar, in particular, introduced 5000, of whom a tenth were Greeks; and the colony assumed for a short time the name of Novum Comum. On the accession of Caesar to supreme power, Comum obtained the complete right of citizenship; but though it was at this time at the height of its prosperity, it never took rank higher than a municipal town. In the early part of the Middle Ages it formed for a time, like many of the towns of Italy, an independent republic; but after a considerable struggle it had to submit to Milan. Its deliverance was effected in 1158 by Frederick I. of Germany, to whom its citizens had appealed; but in the 15th century it again succumbed before the Milanese nobles. In 1520 it was captured by Charles V. During the Roman period the Pliny family were connected with the city; and in more modern times it numbers among its celebrities Paulus Jovius, Piazzi the astronomer, and Volta the electrician. See Cantu, Storia di Como, 1829; and Monti, Storia di Como, 1829.
COMO, Lake of, or, in Italian, Lago di Como, known to the Romans as Lacus Larius, is, from the beauty of its scenery and the mildness of its climate, one of the most celebrated of all the Italian lakes. It is situated in the province of Como, in that part of the country which belonged to the kingdom of Lombardy, and it occupies the bottom of a great valley, which, stretching south from the neighbourhood of Chiavenna at the foot of the Splügen, breaks up at Bellaggio into two branches which run respectively south-east and south-west. The lake is thus divided into three basins, of which the south western is known more particularly as the Lago di Como, and the southeastern as the Lago di Lecco. The northern part of the original basin has been silted up by the debris brought down from the valleys of San Giacomo and Bregaglia by the River Mera; and not only∣has the Adda, which enters from the east, filled up the branch that in all probability once extended up the Valtelline as far as Morbegno i but it has also, by its delta, or cone of ejection, cut off from the main body of the lake the part now known as the Lago di Mezzola. Of the real form of the bed of the lake there was hardly any knowledge till 1865, when a survey was undertaken by Signor Gentilli and MM. Casella and Bernasconi. The results obtained were published by Gentilli in the second volume of the Memoirs of the Società Italiana di Scieme Naturali, and by his coadjutors in a separate pamphlet entitled Cenni Orograβci sul Lago di Como. It appears that the greatest depth is 1341 feet, which was registered in a section of the Lago di Como from Torrigia to Como. From the northern extremity of the lake the basin gradually grows deeper as we advance southwards, till it shallows towards the promontory of Bellaggio; in the south-western branch it grows rapidly deeper again, while in the south-eastern it shallows to 390 or 290 feet. This difference of the two branches is easily explained by the fact that the Lago di Como is a closed basin except at its junction with the main body of the lake, and throughout a coast line of upwards of forty miles receives only two unimportant torrents, while the Lago di Lecco is in the direct course of the Adda, which makes its exit by the southern extremity. The total length of the lake, from Como to its northern ext emity, is about thirty miles, and its greatest width, between Menaggio and Varenna, about two miles and a half. The shores of the lake are studded with ancient castles, flourishing hamlets, and the villas of wealthy proprietors. On the eastern side the principal places are Colico-piano, Dervio, Bellano, Varenna, Mandello, and Lecco; and along the western Gravedona, Dongo, Menaggio, Cadenabbia, Argegno, Moltrasio, and Cernobbio. Bellaggio, as already mentioned, is situated at the promontory where the lake bifurcates southwards. The Villa Vigorni, near Menaggio, formerly the property of Mylius of Frankfort, contains sculptures of Thorwaldsen, Marchesi, and Argenti; the Villa Giulia, near Bellaggio, belongs to the king of the Belgians; the Villa Carlotta or Sommariva, near Cadenabbia, took its name from Charlotte of Prussia, wife of the duke of Saxe-Meiningen; the Villa d’Este, near Cernobbio, was at one time the residence of Queen Caroline of England. The Villa Raimondi or Odescalchi, is the largest of all.
For further details, besides the publications already referred to, see Cantu, Como e it suo Iago (last edition, 1872); Leonhardi, Der Comersee und seine Umgebungen, Leipsic, 1862; P. A. Curti, 11 Iago di Como e il pian cïErba, 1872; and an article by John Ball in the eighth volume of the Ceol. Mag.
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