Curiosity

Chalet Sonzogno

Turin, 1902: a wooden chalet is reportedly on display. Two years later, it resurfaces as third prize in a newspaper contest—fully furnished.

Address: Via Nidrino, Brunate
Area: Como, Italy

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Why it is worth the detour

A wooden chalet reportedly exhibited in Turin in 1902, then offered fully furnished as third prize in a newspaper subscription contest. The winner soon sold it, and the Sonzogno publishing family bought it back.

Chalet Sonzogno is a unique wooden chalet with a storied past, originally exhibited in Turin and later owned by the Sonzogno family. It represents an intriguing piece of architectural history in Brunate.

What else is close by

The nearest places we have written up, with straight-line distance from here.

100 m
Campari Fountain
Someone looked at a village water source and thought: useful—but could it sell Campari too? The answer is standing in front of you.
150 m
Bellavista Hotel and Pencho Slaveykov Memorial
The funicular sends a new crowd up the hill, and the Bellavista opens its doors to catch the trade. Then a Bulgarian poet spends his final days here, giving this hotel frontage a second, more poignant life.
150 m
Church of Saint Andrew the Apostle
You arrive in Piazza alla Chiesa expecting one church and one façade. Saint Andrew’s has other ideas: repeated rebuilding and a twentieth-century enlargement left it with two public faces.
200 m
Villa Pirotta Bonacossa
A cotton magnate eyes an exceptionally steep Brunate hillside and decides it needs a miniature Versailles. Villa Pirotta Bonacossa is what happens when industrial wealth, artistic ambition, and gravity all refuse to back down.
200 m
Former Grand Hotel Brunate
The grand hotel is ready for guests: fifty rooms, a proud resort façade—and no funicular yet. Brunate is betting on a tourist boom before the easiest ride up the mountain has even opened.
400 m
Marenghi Park and the Pertugio Spring
In 1785, Carlo Amoretti disappeared into the Pertugio cave while Volta stayed above gripping the rope. The spring they identified is still collected here—under a cover most people could walk straight past.