Ca' del Diavol

At the mouth of Bellano's gorge, a pentagonal three-storey tower balances on rock above the Pioverna. Named for the devil painted among its frescoes, it now interprets the geology, legends and history of this stretch of the lake.

Why it matters

The tower has stood at the gorge entrance since at least the early seventeenth century, while its origin is listed as unknown. It takes its name from frescoes in its upper storey where the devil and other mythological figures can be made out, and from the legends that grew around them, which placed satanic rites and debauches behind its windows. The municipal portal also records a more prosaic reading: that the building once gave access to passages running beneath the old town during Austrian rule. Recently restored, it now works as the storytelling hub of Bellano's visiting circuit, compressing the territory's whole narrative — rock, water, legend, flight — into three small floors.

What to notice

The interpretation unfolds across three levels. One explores the gorge's geology, the Pioverna's waters and the area's history; another presents the legend of the Pesa Vegia, Bellano's traditional weights-and-measures festival. Multimedia interpretation includes a simulated flight following the Pioverna through the Valsassina and back over the lake, narrated by the figure of seventeenth-century chronicler Sigismondo Boldoni.

Context and history

Documents place the tower at the gorge mouth by the early 1600s, but nothing reliable explains why it was built or by whom — hence the freedom of the legends. Its pentagonal plan on a boulder above the rushing stream must have looked sinister enough, and the painted devil in the upper frescoes fixed the name. The portal also suggests that the building may have provided access to passages beneath the old town during Austrian rule. Its conversion into an exhibition space is the most recent turn: the municipality restored the structure and fitted it with the multimedia equipment that now anchors the interpretation offered across Bellano's attractions, from the canyon below to the museums in town.