Church

San Donato Hermitage

You are only about one-third of the way from Como to Brunate when the old mule track meets a Franciscan retreat on a rocky spur. Quiet setting, sharp plot twist: in the Napoleonic period, suppression and confiscation changed the place for good.

Address: Salita San Donato, Garzola, Como
Area: Como, Italy

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Why it is worth the detour

A former Franciscan hermitage perched on a rocky spur beside the old mule track between Como and Brunate. After Napoleonic suppression and confiscation, its monastic buildings declined and were eventually adapted into rural homes.

San Donato Hermitage is a hidden gem in Como, offering a glimpse into its monastic past. Once a Franciscan retreat, it now serves as rural homes, providing a unique historical perspective.

What else is close by

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

600 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.
600 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.
650 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.
700 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.
700 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.
800 m
Como–Brunate Funicular
In 1894, the mule-track slog up from Como met its match: a railway climbing roughly 500 vertical metres. Brunate would never be quite so secluded again.