Museo del Paesaggio del Lago di Como

Tremezzina's civic museum occupies Villa Mainona, a lakeside residence of 1670-1672 at Tremezzo. Inside, antique prints and early photographs of the Lario meet touchscreen tables that overlay historic maps on today's shoreline, alongside a small cinema section devoted to the films shot on the lake.

Why it matters

Run by the Comune di Tremezzina, the museum takes the Larian landscape as its subject. Housed in Villa Mainona on the Strada Regina at Tremezzo, it explores the Larian landscape and the area’s cultural heritage. Its collections bring together historic views of the lake, photography and digital tools that compare historic maps with the present-day shoreline. The collections document the villas, villages and panoramas of Tremezzina. The building adds its own layer: Villa Mainona, an ancient residence erected between 1670 and 1672 and long associated with the Mainoni family, is itself part of the lakefront story the museum tells.

What to notice

Historical prints include views and illustrations of the Lario’s principal localities and villas; the collection spans the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries and is linked to the Giorgio Bordoli collection. Historic photographs of the lake include work by photographer Ruggero Pini. A multimedia system uses two touchscreen tables to compare georeferenced maps and historic images with the present-day territory, alongside clips from films shot around the lake. The cinema section ranges from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Pleasure Garden, shot on the lake in 1925, to Casino Royale. A 2024 exhibition, “Paesaggio sublime. Il Lago di Como all’epoca di Giovanni Battista Sommariva 1801–1826,” brought together thirty-nine watercolours and prints by Gerolamo Mantelli, Peter Birmann, Carolina and Federico Lose, Marianne Colston and Alessandro Sanquirico.

Context and history

Villa Mainona went up between 1670 and 1672 as a patrician residence facing the lake's western branch, and local presentation identifies it with the Mainoni family. The civic museum explores the area’s environmental and cultural heritage. Its exhibitions have also explored the lake’s relationship with nearby villa museums. The museum also anchors the municipal network of heritage sites, which includes the Antiquarium at Ossuccio among the "luoghi collegati" listed on the official page.