Consonno: The Abandoned Toy Town on the Hills Above Lecco

Consonno was a small rural borgo on the hills above Olginate, in the province of Lecco. In 1962, Count Mario Bagno bought almost the entire village, had the medieval houses demolished, and built a luna park in their place: a minaret, a Chinese pagoda, a mock castle, ballrooms, shopping galleries. He called it the Città dei Balocchi — the City of Toys — and for a few years it worked: a disco, a restaurant, dance halls, festive evenings.

Then in 1976 a landslide blocked the only access road. The count never repaired it. Consonno died for the second time.

What remains today is a surreal landscape: reinforced concrete structures overrun by vegetation, murals and graffiti on every wall, stairways that lead nowhere, panoramic terraces with views over the Prealps and the lake. The minarets and pagodas are still standing, crumbling and wrapped in ivy. It is a place that feels like the set of a dystopian film — and in fact it has been used as a location for short films and music videos.

Consonno is reached from Olginate by walking up a closed asphalt road for about an hour. The walk is pleasant: chestnut woods, viewpoints over Lago di Garlate, silence. The arrival is sudden: you round a corner and find yourself facing Count Bagno's wild architecture, with the mountains behind.

There is no ticket, no guide, no one. You explore freely, with the caution owed to buildings abandoned for fifty years: unstable floors, collapsed roofs, vegetation that has taken over. In recent years the municipality has secured some structures and an association organises guided visits during certain periods.

Consonno is a monument to folly and the transience of human ambition. A medieval borgo destroyed to build a plastic dream that lasted fifteen years, and which nature is slowly reclaiming with vegetable patience. To visit it is both fascinating and melancholy — a lesson in modesty written in concrete and ivy.

The best time is spring and autumn. It can be visited in half a day, combining the walk up with a stop at Lago di Garlate.

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