Looking for a green walk to regenerate your senses?
On Lake Como, we have all you need. Let’s discover the Sacro Monte di Ossuccio.
As everybody knows, a green walk is a move through a natural space.
On Lake Como, we have plenty of paths and places surrounded by nature to help you escape all your city-life troubles.
Today, we’ll bring you to more than a natural space but a real regenerating walk, discovering a marvellous pathway, destination…Sacro Monte di Ossuccio, on the western shore of Lake Como.
The Sacro Monte di Ossuccio is located in the homonymous town, which, since 2014, is part of the municipality of Tremezzina in the province of Como.
We’ll reach our destination by walking across nature for physical, social, and mental health benefits.
We are sure this activity will amaze you.
Are you ready? Let’s start our journey!
Sacro Monte di Ossuccio: a little bit of history
On top of a hill, behind the village of Ossuccio, in Roman times, there was a place of worship.
In the Middle Ages, the Sanctuary of Madonna del Soccorso was built and then rebuilt around 1530.
The idea of building a Sacred Mount came a century later, a place where the faithful could go by reciting the mysteries of the Rosary, as they already did in Sacred Mount of Varese.
It seems that the Franciscan Lorenzo Selenato promoted the project, to which the noble families of the area contributed. The construction site was active until 1714, when the cobbled path connecting the chapels was finished. 14 chapels in all, dedicated to joyful mysteries, painful mysteries, and glorious mysteries.
The Sanctuary is the last mystery, the fifteenth. Inside, a single nave with two side altars and a chapel on the left. The church preserves a fourteenth-century Virgin Mary with the Child, probably made by masters from Campione. On the walls are many votive offerings collected over the centuries by the faithful who have invoked the protection of Our Lady of Help, Madonna del Soccorso (in Italian), from which the name.
How to reach Sacro Monte di Ossuccio
Starting from Lake Como Greenway, the well-known itinerary from Colonno to Griante, you can take numerous walks within the villages of Colonno, Sala Comacina, Ossuccio, Lenno, Mezzegra, Tremezzo and Griante or along the slopes of the surrounding mountains to live a green experience.
The route to reach Sacro Monte di Ossuccio starts from the cemetery of Sala Comacina and leads to the Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin in Ossuccio.
Leaving behind the lively life of the lakeside promenade, we will go for a relaxing and panoramic mountain walk.
The trail climbs for about 1.5 km until you reach a detour.
The most adventurous can climb until reaching the Sala Alps, where a beautiful view and a characteristic farmhouse will welcome you. You can taste goat cheese cold cuts and enjoy some Merlot wine there.
By the way, the route we suggest you take is on the flat road that passes through a group of renovated farmhouses.
In the area of the farmhouses, you can enjoy the magnificent view of Isola Comacina and take a rest. If you are a cheese lover, we recommend a stop to taste and buy excellent cow cheese and other typical products.
The pathway to Sacro Monte di Ossuccio and its surprises.
The suggestive pathway to Sacro Monte di Ossuccio brings us to two main destinations of great historical and cultural interest: the Torre del Soccorso, also known as the “Barbarossa Tower”, of medieval origins, which is now the property of FAI, and the Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin (Santuario della Madonna del Soccorso).
The last one is now a UNESCO cultural heritage, a destination for pilgrimage, but also of affectionate devotion by the local people who often go there even just for a prayer to Our Lady.
These points of interest are not the only treasure of this route.
Along the walk, you can enjoy the rural landscape of the first mountain belt: a characteristic village of farmhouses and cultivated meadows.
After the farmhouse, there is a valley, and you can proceed along the cobbled road, which later becomes a path leading into the woods, and walk on a small and characteristic wooden bridge to cross the valley. This valley is just in the middle of two villages: Sala Comacina and Ossuccio.
After the valley, on the right, you meet the Torre del Soccorso.
The Tower is 400 meters above sea level, overlooking the Zoca de l’Oli, a quiet inlet from where to contemplate the magnificent scenery of the lake and the mountains around.
Walking along the Tower, you get to a new fork: going down, and you will reach Ossuccio village. Going uphill to the left, that’s what we recommend, and you’ll get the Sanctuary (Santuario della Madonna del Soccorso).
The recently restored Sanctuary, surrounded by greenery and completely isolated from any other building, is a place of peace and calmness. After the walk, you can enjoy a well-deserved rest on the large square, with a spectacular view that stretches to Isola Comacina, the Balbianello peninsula, Tremezzo, Bellagio, and Varenna.
Don’t miss a visit to the Sanctuary, a place of prayer and devotion and an important historical-architectural testimony.
Leaving the Sanctuary square, you can now descend towards the Greenway following the Sacro Monte di Ossuccio chapels path, which winds through olive groves along a cobblestone path and steps.
A one-of-a-kind scenery will accompany you during the walk.
At each bend, the view of the lake looks different, and the views from the various viewpoints are unique. Stop and snoop inside the Chapels, built between 1635 and 1710. Each chapel represents a scene of the Mysteries of the Rosary, with statues in stucco and terracotta.
If you want to visit this amazing place departing from our Hotel Loveno, we suggest you take a bus, the C10 line, get off in Lenno, after 25mins, and then start your adventure there. Climbing time: 30-45 minutes, from Lenno.
Of course, you can reach Lenno also by car or by walking if you are a superhero! 😊
To have more info do not hesitate to ask at our reception desk.
Enjoy your time on Lake Como!
Contact us to discover more info@hotelloveno.com.
– Sara
Info and Photogallery https://mylakecomo.co/it/itinerari/passeggiata-da-sala-comacina-al-sacro-monte-di-ossuccio/