Lierna is acomune in theprovince ofLecco inLombardy, in north-west Italy. It lies on the eastern shore ofLake Como, about 60 kilometres (37 mi) north ofMilan and about 15 kilometres (9 mi) north-west ofLecco.
The first mention of Lierna dates to 854 AD, butRoman remains, including amosaic floor now in the Palazzo Belgioioso ofLecco, attest to much earlier settlement. The name of the village may be of Roman or ofCeltic origin.[3] Between 1035 and 1202 it was afeud of theMonastery of San Dionigi in Milan. Lierna was contested betweenMilan andComo, and between theDella Torre andVisconti families. It passed into the hands of theMarchesino Stanga in 1499, and in 1533 to theSfondrati family [it] ofCremona, who held it until 1788. Lierna became acomune in 1743, when it was separated from that ofMandello.[3]
In 1927 the Milanese sculptorGiannino Castiglioni opened a studio at his house in Lierna. He died in Lierna on 27 August 1971.[4] He left some preparatoryplaster casts to the comune; a museum to house them is under construction.[5]
In 1933 an incompletefossil ofLariosaurus balsami, anothosaurid from theMiddle Triassic (circa 240 million years ago) of which the first example was discovered atPerledo, some 10 km north of Lierna, was found in a quarry in thefrazione of Grumo. It is now in the Museo di Storia Naturale in the Palazzo Belgioioso of Lecco.[6]
^Giovanna Rosso Del Brenna (1979).Castiglioni, Giannino (in Italian).Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 22. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed October 2015.
^Museo Giannino Castiglioni (in Italian). Provincia di Como e Provincia di Lecco: www.lakecomo.com. Accessed October 2015.
