The Orrido di Bellano is the main tourist attraction of the town and one of the most important of Lake Como. This is a natural gorge created 15 million years ago by the erosion of the River Pioverna and the Adda glacier which, over the centuries, have shaped the rock into gigantic potholes, dark ravines and suggestive caves. The narrow canyon can be visited thanks to a system of footbridges anchored on the high walls overlooking the water, perfectly illuminated in the evening where the charm of the place takes on different nuances, and that recently have been extended to reach the large waterfall located further upstream.
The narrow spaces, the particular play of light reflected on the rocky walls and on the water, the vegetation that recalls more tropical environments and the noise of the waterfalls crashing on the stone have always inspired many writers who have told of its beauty or have created some legends such as that of Taino or those linked to the Cà del Diavol. It happened to Stendhal who mentioned it in his Italian Journey, it happened to Johann Jakob Wetzel who described it as “a theatre of beauty and frights, [from which] one hears a noise similar to that of thunder” and it happened again to the Bellano poet Sigismondo Boldoni who defined it as “Gorge of a horrendous hideousness”.
Bellano has always been linked to water: not only to the water of the lake but also to that of the Orrido because, with its power, it has guaranteed the necessary strength to move the machines in its numerous factories and consequently to guarantee work and well-being to its citizens for centuries. From the primitive system of canals and tunnels to the more modern system of penstocks, in fact, the waters of the Pioverna were first exploited by the ironworks, the spinning mills and the cotton mill and then by the more recent hydroelectric power station; all these activities have in common the place where they arise or were born: the mouth of the Orrido, the best point to exploit the natural waterfall.
