Lake Como GuidebookComacina, 1169: The Burning of an Island and the Festival That Answers It
Last reviewed 2026-09-09
The destruction of Isola Comacina in 1169 is the only event in the history of this lake that still has a fireworks display attached to it. Como's forces, in the decade-long war against Milan and with Frederick Barbarossa's imperial weight behind them, razed the island town on the only island in the lake, and it was never rebuilt: the eight hundred and fifty years since have left it a field of church foundations with no town, no comune and no permanent population. Every June the Comune di Tremezzina answers that with a procession of torchlit boats and a pyrotechnic re-enactment of the burning. This page sets out what an authority actually states about 1169, which of the familiar details are contested and by whom, and what is on the island now. Practical hours, fares and the boat are on Isola Comacina; the rest of the shore is on our lake guide.
Quick answer What is documented, what is folklore, and this year's dates
What an authority states is short: in the wars of Frederick Barbarossa's time the island was wiped out in 1169, and its inhabitants withdrew in large part to Varenna. That is the Enciclopedia Italiana's account, and it is nine words of Italian long. The island had taken Milan's side against Como in a war that had already sacked the whole lake once, in 1120 and 1121. Everything more specific that circulates, the exact day, the bishop's curse, the number of churches burned, the body count, is not in any source this site was able to verify. The Sagra di San Giovanni re-enacts the burning each June, and in 2026 it falls on 24, 27 and 28 June with the fireworks at 22:30 on Saturday the 27th.
Key takeaways
- The Enciclopedia Italiana's words are "notevole lo sterminio dell'Isola (1169), i cui abitanti si ritirarono in gran parte a Varenna", which is why Varenna has a medieval quarter and the island has none
- The island is the one place on this lake genuinely reachable only by boat, and the ferry fares page covers the scheduled service that calls there
- Nothing was rebuilt as a town, but three rationalist artists' houses went up to Pietro Lingeri's 1940 design and the church of San Giovanni Battista was reconsecrated after a 2008 restoration
- The 2026 Sagra runs 24, 27 and 28 June, with the torchlit Lucie at 21:00 and the burning re-enacted at 22:30 on Saturday 27 June, per the Comune di Tremezzina's own programme
- Getting there for the festival or for the ruins is a boat day: a four-hour cruise with stops or a small-group hour on the water covers the same stretch of shore
What an authority actually says
The Enciclopedia Italiana's entry on the lake, written by Rina Monti, Carlo Guido Mor and Manfredo Vanni, disposes of the whole episode in a subordinate clause. On the alignments it is explicit: in the decade-long war between Milan and Como the lake's communities took sides, most of them for Como, including Tremezzo, Bellano and Dervio, while others went against Como, and the list of those others begins with the island, then Bellagio, Menaggio and Gravedona. It records what that cost them the first time round: in 1120 and 1121 the whole lake was overrun and sacked, with the ruin of Tremezzo, Campo, Bellagio and Lierna.
Then the sentence everything else hangs on. Of the Frederician wars the entry says little is known, and singles out two things: the extermination of the island in 1169, whose inhabitants withdrew in large part to Varenna, and the participation of the Tre Pievi at the battle of Legnano on the side of the Lombard League. That second clause is the detail worth carrying away, because it is the one with consequences you can still walk through: the people of a destroyed island town crossing the lake to a village that now has 646 residents and a railway station.
Note what the authority does not say. It gives no day in 1169, no casualty figure, no account of a siege, no list of what was burned, and no mention of a curse. It does not name Barbarossa as present. Everything in the popular version beyond the year and the outcome is additional to this source, and this site treats it as such.
The familiar details, and what stands behind them
Each row sets a claim that circulates widely beside what a source we could verify actually states. The authority column is the Enciclopedia Italiana entry on the lake, the Comune di Tremezzina's festival programme, or the island's own visitor information, all read in Q3 2026.
| The claim | What a verifiable source says |
|---|---|
| The island was destroyed on 24 June 1169, the feast of St John the Baptist | The year 1169 is stated by the Enciclopedia Italiana. No day is. The comune dates its own Mass on the island to 24 June but makes no historical claim about the date of the destruction. |
| Frederick Barbarossa personally led or ordered the attack | The entry places the event in the Frederician wars and says that of the lake's communities in that period little is known. It does not put Barbarossa on the lake in 1169. |
| A bishop of Como cursed the island, forbidding bells, rebuilding and any lord living there | Not in any source verified here. No comune page, no diocesan document and no encyclopaedia entry we reached carries the anathema or its text. |
| Nine churches were burned | No number is published by any authority we reached. The island's own visitor information names the surviving remains rather than a tally of what was lost. |
| The survivors founded Varenna | The encyclopaedia says they withdrew in large part to Varenna, which is a movement of people rather than a founding. Varenna today is a comune of 646. |
| Nothing has been built on the island since | Not quite. Three rationalist Case per Artisti were built to Pietro Lingeri's 1940 design, and the church of San Giovanni Battista was reconsecrated after a 2008 restoration. |
| The festival fireworks are always on 24 June | In 2026 the comune puts the pyrotechnic re-enactment at 22:30 on Saturday 27 June. The day moves; read the year's own programme. |
Five of these seven are not refuted here, only unsupported: we did not find an authority that states them, which is a different thing from finding one that denies them. The distinction matters on a page like this, and it is the reason the site prints the year and the outcome as fact and the rest as claim.
The chronology, with the sourced entries only
Dates that an authority we read actually prints. Where a popular account supplies a finer date, it is absent here by choice rather than by oversight.
-
1118–1127
The decade-long war between Milan and Como
The lake's communities divide. Most take Como's side; the island, Bellagio, Menaggio and Gravedona take Milan's. Enciclopedia Italiana, entry on the lake.
-
1120–1121
The whole lake is overrun and sacked
In the encyclopaedia's words, with the ruin of Tremezzo, Campo, Bellagio and Lierna. The island survives this round.
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1169
The island is wiped out
"Notevole lo sterminio dell'Isola (1169), i cui abitanti si ritirarono in gran parte a Varenna." Nine words, one year, no day, and the one consequence that can still be traced.
-
1176
Legnano
The Tre Pievi of the upper lake fight with the Lombard League. The same entry pairs this with 1169 as the only two notable things it knows of the lake in the Frederician wars.
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1496
A hospice on the facing shore is recognised
The Hospitalis de Stabio at Ossuccio, a twelfth-century hospice for the poor and for pilgrims run by the Giovio family, is formally recognised by Pope Alexander VI. It now houses the island's Antiquarium.
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1940
Three houses, and no town
The rationalist Case per Artisti are built to Pietro Lingeri's design. They are the only modern construction on an island that was never rebuilt as a settlement.
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2003
UNESCO lists the shore opposite
The Sacro Monte di Ossuccio, fourteen chapels and some 230 statues on the hillside facing the island, enters the World Heritage list.
-
2008
A church comes back into use
San Giovanni Battista is reconsecrated after restoration. It is the one building on the island with a living function rather than an archaeological one.
-
2026
The re-enactment
24, 27 and 28 June, with the Lucie at 21:00 and the burning at 22:30 on the Saturday, per the Comune di Tremezzina's published programme.
The gap in the middle of this list is the point of the page. Between 1169 and 1940 there is nothing to put on it, because there was nothing on the island to record.
What is on the island now
The island's archaeological and natural park holds the remains of the Basilica di Sant'Eufemia with its crypt, the churches of Santi Faustino e Giovita, San Pietro in Castello and Santa Maria col Portico, the Casa Torre and stretches of defensive wall, the reconsecrated church of San Giovanni Battista, and the three Case per Artisti. Across the water at Ossuccio the Antiquarium occupies the Hospitalis de Stabio and shows what has come out of the ground.
The ticketing is unusual and worth knowing before you board. The island park alone is €4 for an adult, €3 reduced, €10 for a family, and it is bought from an automatic ticket machine on the island that takes cards only. The Antiquarium alone is €3, and the island with the museum is €6, with an integrated ticket at €9 that adds the Museo del Paesaggio. Visitors found without a ticket are fined, in the operator's own words. The island opens from May to the end of October, daily 10:00 to 18:00; the Antiquarium opens Thursday to Sunday, 11:00 to 17:00, over the same months. No exact opening or closing date is published, only the months.
And one warning that changes how long you can stay: a notice on the island's own site states that the restaurant, the bar and the toilets are closed for an indefinite period. A half-day on a lake island with no toilet is a fact worth having before you get on the boat. It is also the one place on this lake that genuinely cannot be reached on foot: the scheduled boat calls at Isola Comacina, and a private taxi boat is the alternative, with no fare published by the island for either.
Why there is no town, in one sentence
There is no comune of Isola Comacina; the island belongs to Tremezzina, ISTAT publishes no population for it, and nothing has been built there in eight and a half centuries except three artists' houses and a restored church. The practical consequence, including how to get there and when, is on the island's own page.
The festival that answers it, as the comune publishes it
The programme below is the Comune di Tremezzina's own, with the Associazione Turistica Tremezzina, for 2026. The comune calls it the oldest of the lake's festival traditions, uniting art, worship and folklore since the 1600s.
Wednesday 24 June at 19:30, Mass on the island for the Nativity of St John the Baptist, with boats from the Ospedaletto dock and a first departure at 19:45. Saturday 27 June at 19:00, the gastronomic and dancing evening in the municipal park at Ossuccio. Saturday 27 June between 21:00 and 22:00, the night procession of the Lucie: historic boats carrying torches and an illuminated votive cross. Saturday 27 June at 22:30, the pyrotechnic and musical re-enactment of the burning of the island, with fireworks from floating rafts around it. Sunday 28 June at 09:30, the procession from the parish church of the Isola district to the island, by motorboat from Campo in Lenno, transport free. Sunday 28 June at 11:00, Mass in the archaeological area of the Basilica di Sant'Eufemia. Sunday 28 June between 18:00 and 19:00, the costumed re-enactment of the 1169 destruction. Sunday 28 June at 19:00, the second gastronomic and dancing evening.
Two things about that list are worth flagging. The first is the trap every guide falls into: the fireworks are not on 24 June. In 2026 they fall on Saturday the 27th, and the comune republishes the programme each spring rather than following a rule, so the shorthand about the Saturday nearest the feast should not be relied on. The second is the absence of a number. The Lucie are described but not counted, and no authority publishes how many boats, how many lights or how many people attend. Figures in the thousands circulate; none of them comes from the comune.
If you are going, the practical constraint is beds rather than tickets. Nothing about the evening is ticketed in the programme, the boats for the religious parts are free or run from named docks, and what fills up is accommodation around Lenno, Ossuccio and the rest of Tremezzina. How far ahead to book treats that weekend as the one genuine sell-out on this lake.
Reaching this stretch of shore by water
The island has no road and the scheduled boat is the cheapest way to it, which the ferry fares page prices. These are the chartered and guided alternatives along the same shore, listed at the prices read in Q3 2026.
from $174.92
Top rated Lake Como: 4-Hour Boat Tour with Stops in Bellagio and Varenna
Four hours from Como with the boat actually stopping: an hour on foot in Varenna and an hour in Bellagio, plus photo passes at Cernobbio, Laglio, Isola Comacina and the Nesso gorge. Prosecco and the captain's gratuity are in the price; no villa admission is.
Check Availability
from $57.24
Top rated Lake Como Small-Group Boat Tour with Prosecco
One hour in the first basin off Como with a Prosecco or a soft drink and a skipper pointing out Villa d'Este, Villa Erba and the Clooney house. It is a photo cruise: the Bellagio and Balbianello stops shown in the itinerary are optional upgrades, not part of the one-hour ticket.
Check Availability
from $175.89
Lake Como: Vintage photo tour with a classic Fiat 500
Three hours in a vintage Fiat 500 with a driver-guide between Tremezzo and Lenno, stopping at viewpoints for photos taken on a smartphone, not by a professional. Private, hotel pickup included, and the car has no air conditioning.
Check Availability
from $73.29
Likely to sell out Lake Como: Classic Wooden Boat Cruise Tour
A one-hour shared cruise out of Como on a restored wooden boat capped at 8 passengers, with a glass of Prosecco and a captain who narrates. It does not land anywhere: the Bellagio and Varenna stops in the itinerary belong to the operator's separate 4-hour option.
Check Availability
from $115.17
Likely to sell out Lake Como: Self-Drive Boat Rental Without a License
A Marinello Fisherman speedboat you drive yourself for an hour with no licence, after a briefing from an instructor. Priced per boat, so it splits well; fuel is not included and is €25 an hour paid on the spot.
Check AvailabilityPrices, ratings and details are the platform's own, checked in Q3 2026; dollar figures are the listed prices — the platform bills in your account's currency.
Comacina in 1169: the questions people actually ask
What happened to Isola Comacina in 1169?
Como's forces destroyed the island town, in the wars of Frederick Barbarossa's period and after the island had sided with Milan against Como. The Enciclopedia Italiana's entry on the lake records it as the extermination of the island in 1169 and adds that its inhabitants withdrew in large part to Varenna. It gives no day, no casualty figure and no account of the attack itself, and neither does any other source we verified.
Was the island cursed so it could never be rebuilt?
That story is everywhere and we could not source it. No comune page, no diocesan document and no encyclopaedia entry we reached carries a bishop's anathema against rebuilding, ringing bells or living there as a lord. What is verifiable is the outcome rather than the cause: no settlement was ever rebuilt, there is no comune of Isola Comacina, and the only modern buildings are three rationalist artists' houses of 1940 and a church reconsecrated in 2008.
Why does Varenna come into the story?
Because the one consequence the authority records is a movement of people to it. The encyclopaedia's sentence says the island's inhabitants withdrew in large part to Varenna, which is a village today of 646 residents across the lake on the eastern shore. Whether that amounts to a founding is not something the source claims. Varenna's own page covers what is there now, and the comparison with Bellagio is the practical version of the question.
When is the Sagra di San Giovanni, and is the fire always on 24 June?
In 2026 the festival runs on 24, 27 and 28 June, and the fireworks with the re-enacted burning fall at 22:30 on Saturday 27 June, not on the 24th. The comune publishes the programme each spring and the day moves, so read that year's notice. The torchlit procession of the Lucie precedes it between 21:00 and 22:00, and the costumed re-enactment of 1169 itself is on the Sunday evening between 18:00 and 19:00.
Is Isola Comacina worth visiting?
It is worth visiting for the ruins and the story, and it is a poor choice for a long afternoon. What you get for the €4 park ticket is the crypt of the Basilica di Sant'Eufemia, three more ruined churches, the Casa Torre, stretches of wall, the reconsecrated San Giovanni Battista and Pietro Lingeri's three rationalist artists' houses of 1940, on the only island in Lake Como and the one place on this lake that genuinely cannot be reached on foot. Against that, the island's own site says the restaurant, the bar and the toilets are closed for an indefinite period, the ticket machine on the island takes cards only, and the opening is months rather than dates, May to the end of October, daily 10:00 to 18:00. Judge it as a two-hour stop between boats rather than a day, and pair it with the Antiquarium at Ossuccio on the €6 combined ticket. The island page has the tariff and the boat.
Can you visit the island, and what does it cost?
Yes, from May to the end of October, daily 10:00 to 18:00. The archaeological and natural park alone is €4 for an adult from an automatic machine on the island that takes cards only; the Antiquarium at Ossuccio is €3; the two together are €6, and €9 buys the integrated ticket with the Museo del Paesaggio. Visitors found without a ticket are fined. Note that the restaurant, bar and toilets are closed for an indefinite period. The island page has the full tariff.
How do you get to Isola Comacina?
Only by boat, and it is the single place on this lake for which that is literally true. The state operator's Como to Colico line lists Isola Comacina among its ports, and the island's own site points at a private taxi-boat service as the alternative. Neither the island nor the operator publishes a taxi-boat fare. The scheduled fare is priced by the stretch between the two piers you use, and ferry tickets sets out how that works.
The Island on Film
Three films of a place with church foundations and no town: the walk among the ruins, the shape of the island from the water, and the shore it sits off.
Isola Comacina
The island at ground level, which is the clearest answer to what eight and a half centuries of not being rebuilt looks like.
Video: vision 360Lake Como: Isola Comacina, Drone Footage
The shape and the scale from above, with Ossuccio and the sacro monte on the facing hillside.
Video: Travel 360 DroneOssuccio and Isola Comacina
The shore the processions leave from, and the water the Lucie cross on the Saturday night.
Video: Porsche Carrera world TEUTONICO GRÜPVideos load from YouTube only when you press play.