In Olginate, in the province of Lecco, Consonno is a ghost city. A village where time has crystallized, and the buildings are the remains of an ambition: to become the "Las Vegas" of Brianza.
Consonno, the history of the city of toys
Located in the extreme south of the Lombard Prealps, Consonno was a possession of the Benedictine monastery of Civate. Then, in 1412, the municipality swore allegiance to Filippo Maria Visconti. At the end of the sixteenth century it was included in the prospectus it included the lands of the Duchy of Milan and others with them taxed for the stara of salt while, two centuries later, it passed into the VI district of Oggiono in the province of Milan. Years of changes followed, of adhesions to other districts, of returns to previous ones. Until, in 1928, Consonno was aggregated to the municipality of Olginate. Its inhabitants, who after World War II were only about fifty, lived on crafts and agriculture. But the village was destined to change, profoundly. A change wanted by Mario Bagno, Grand Officer Count of Villa dell'Olmo born in 1901 and became known due to its eccentricity.
Between the fifties and seventies, in the period of Italian economic miracle, Bagno had started building roads and airports throughout Italy. And he had chosen Consonno to create one city of toys, connecting the village to Olginate with a road that cost 22.500.000 lire at the time. The ancient village was therefore demolished, with the exception of the church of San Maurizio, its rectory and the cemetery. Instead of the old buildings, a minaret it's a castle, a dance hall, a luxury hotel and several restaurants. And then an amusement park, a zoo, basketball, football and volleyball fields. "Consonno is the smallest but the most beautiful town in the world"Read the placards and postcards,"In Consonno it's always a party".
The defeat of the village
The autodrome dreamed of by the entrepreneur was never built, and the most important building remained the minaret (so named for its resemblance to the tower of the mosques) with its apartments and its commercial gallery. Then there was the “bathroom missile” with an artillery cannon and a panoramic train that gave tourists an idea of the village. However, the buildings destroyed the hydrogeological balance. And, starting in 1966, the brakes. The final closure took place in 1976, when the last landslide destroyed the access road again. The inhabitants of the village had by now begun to leave, and the city of toys no longer visited. Permanently closed in 2007, its facilities were filled with graffiti during a rave party that took place the same year.
Put on the market by the heirs of Bagno, today Consonno is a real ghost town. It can only be entered on foot, many buildings are unsafe and most of the territory remains private property. However, its past is so suggestive that the village has been chosen as film set (from "Figli di Annibale" by Davide Ferrario to the web series "Skypocalypse") and advertising (Levi's, Glassing, BMW).
