Eremo Park Center
Loc. Eremo del Monte Barro
23851 Galbiate (LC)
Municipality: Galbiate
Region: Lombardia
At an altitude of about 790m, at the end of the one and only road climbing the slopes of Mt. Barro, there is location "Eremo" (meaning "hermitage"), housing the Park Environmental Education Center.
In the historical park of the Hermitage you can admire the imposing beech trees, which are considered monumental trees and are similar to the biggest beech tree specimens situated in the underlying Val Faé; nearby there is also the Botanic Trail "G.Fornaciari", along which you can observe several botanic species of naturalistic interest.
The Hermitage of Mt. Barro has a complex history developing for centuries in a long series of ups and downs: it was a Roman garrison, the likely seat of the commander of the Ostrogothic settlement, a likely Lombard fortress, Sforza fortress, a Franciscan monastery (from here the name "Eremo"), and, in recent times, the seat of Grande Albergo Monte Barro (1889-1927), and finally a sanatorium active until 1968; it was the latter use which deeply changed the pre-existing structures of which we only can find a few traces in the late Gothic church of S.Maria situated at the end of the paved staircase and in several Gothic walls which we can still admire. The big and sometimes bulky building witnessing the scarce respect for the environment, characterizing most of the building activities of the past decades, is today a property of the Park Authority, which committed itself to the essential building and landscape rehabilitation of the site: important works of partial demolition of the huge building have given back to the place a pleasant look; moreover, a guest house equipped with a bar-restaurant, a Visitor Center, and a Didactic Ecological Lab have been created: they represent essential reference points to carry out activities of environmental education and didactics.
In the historical park of the Hermitage you can admire the imposing beech trees, which are considered monumental trees and are similar to the biggest beech tree specimens situated in the underlying Val Faé; nearby there is also the Botanic Trail "G.Fornaciari", along which you can observe several botanic species of naturalistic interest.
The Hermitage of Mt. Barro has a complex history developing for centuries in a long series of ups and downs: it was a Roman garrison, the likely seat of the commander of the Ostrogothic settlement, a likely Lombard fortress, Sforza fortress, a Franciscan monastery (from here the name "Eremo"), and, in recent times, the seat of Grande Albergo Monte Barro (1889-1927), and finally a sanatorium active until 1968; it was the latter use which deeply changed the pre-existing structures of which we only can find a few traces in the late Gothic church of S.Maria situated at the end of the paved staircase and in several Gothic walls which we can still admire. The big and sometimes bulky building witnessing the scarce respect for the environment, characterizing most of the building activities of the past decades, is today a property of the Park Authority, which committed itself to the essential building and landscape rehabilitation of the site: important works of partial demolition of the huge building have given back to the place a pleasant look; moreover, a guest house equipped with a bar-restaurant, a Visitor Center, and a Didactic Ecological Lab have been created: they represent essential reference points to carry out activities of environmental education and didactics.
In the Hermitage, also the Antiquarium (Italian text) has been created for the display of interesting Gothic finds.
© 2024 - Ente Parco Monte Barro