The present cemetery was built in 1811 and consecrated by the provost of Bellano, Francesco Ongania, on December of the same year. The building of the new cemetery almost certainly took place in compliance with the Imperial Decree on Burials or Edict of Saint Cloud, issued by Napoleon on June 12, 1804 and extended to the Kingdom of Italy in 1806. The edict stipulated that graves were to be placed outside the cities, in sunny and airy places surrounded by walls, and that they were to be identical and devoid of excessive decoration; concessions to private individuals for the building of personal tombs were possible, however, and for the illustrious deceased a commission of magistrates was charged with deciding whether to have an epitaph carved on the grave.
The first burial, obtained from parish records, was that of Teresa Cereghini of Ombriaco, daughter of Antonio Maria Cereghini and Maria Teresa Mezzera, who died at the age of 13 on December 17, 1811.
The new cemetery underwent at least two enlargements: the first in 1915 on land donated to the municipality by Monsignor Luigi Vitali, an illustrious Bellanese whose memorial statue stands at the cemetery entrance; the second in the late 1950s, with the building of the upper part, St. Bernardino and St. Vincent fields and the new field.
