Curiosity

The Underground Valduce Stream at Piazza Matteotti

The Valduce comes down from Brunate, reaches northeastern Como—and then appears to vanish. It has not: beneath the modern city, the stream is still heading for the lake.

Address: Piazzale Giacomo Matteotti, Como
Area: Como, Italy

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The Underground Valduce Stream at Piazza Matteotti

Why it is worth the detour

A stream from Brunate still reaches Lake Como here, but completes its journey beneath streets and buildings. Once prone to flooding this side of the city, the Valduce was diverted and gradually buried.

The Underground Valduce Stream at Piazza Matteotti is a hidden gem in Como, where a stream from Brunate completes its journey to Lake Como beneath the city's streets. It highlights the city's historical efforts to manage natural watercourses.

What else is close by

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

150 m
Church of San Provino
September 22, 1794: Alessandro Volta, a scientific celebrity at home in Europe’s salons, came to this small church to marry Teresa Peregrini. The setting was strikingly understated; the bride, his letters make clear, was anything but a footnote.
150 m
Torre Pantera
In medieval Como, a clan’s tower could be forcibly shortened. In 1292, that happened to the Rusconi tower beneath Torre Pantera.
200 m
Palazzo Terragni (Casa del Fascio)
It is 1945, and the political order behind this building has collapsed. The former Fascist Party office now has new occupants: parties of the National Liberation Committee. The walls have not moved; Italian politics has.
200 m
Church of San Giacomo
The Vittani and Rusconi are fighting, and San Giacomo’s porch takes the blow. Then decay and remodeling do what the feud could not: turn a vast Romanesque church into the compact fragment in front of you.
200 m
Albergo Terminus
Look from the lake to the Art Nouveau façade: in 1902, Como’s working waterfront was dressing for a new role. The twist? Albergo Terminus was not only a hotel—it also provided bathing facilities for the hotel next door.
200 m
Como Cathedral
No battery, no grand experiment: according to local tradition, the elderly Alessandro Volta came here for Mass each day. Inside, a floor plaque marks the place associated with that quiet routine.