A city where Italian high society once enjoyed itself is now deserted. TRAVELBOOK tells the crazy story of the peasant village that became the Italian Las Vegas.
“Consonno is the smallest but most beautiful city in the world” is the motto at the orphaned entrance gate of the former entertainment city. The place is in northern Italy, in Lombardy. But for a long time there is nothing left of the once most beautiful city. Once upon a time it seemed so rosy for the small town where entrepreneur Mario Bagno wanted to make his lifelong dream come true. He dreamed of building an amusement park.
In 1960 he decided that Consonno was the right city for this project. He wanted to turn it into an Italian Las Vegas. But at first the place was anything but glamorous. At that time Consonno was still an agricultural village. However, this did not discourage the entrepreneur: Mario Bagno bought the place in 1962 for 22.5 million Italian lire and forced the residents to move. He had almost all the buildings demolished, only the church, the cemetery and a few houses remained.
Also of interest: the abandoned cruise ship rotting on Koh Chang
Where the Italian elite celebrated
In place of the old houses, hotels, restaurants, clubs and bars were built for the Italian high society. Mario Bagno also had a ballroom and a railway line built to explore the resort. Each building was modeled after a different culture or period: there was a Muslim minaret, several Chinese pagodas and a medieval castle gate at Consonno. In particular, a 30-metre high tower stands out, considered the symbol of the city.
But that’s not all: it is even said that a zoo, a racetrack, a riding school, a bowling alley and an Egyptian sphinx have been designed, like the booking platform italy-villas.de writes. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the concept of the entrepreneur probably took off. Consonno became a popular destination for weekend parties and weddings, with large crowds pouring into the town.
Also interesting: The Italian Ghost Village, reachable only on foot
The end of the magnificent city
But 1976 marked the end of Italian Las Vegas. A landslide destroyed the only access road and the count and the city could not agree on who should pay for the repairs. But the entrepreneur hasn’t yet wanted to close with “his” city of dreams. So in the 80s he tried to give life back to the city by transforming the Gran Hotel Plaza in Consonno into a nursing home and retirement home and by repairing the access road. But he didn’t succeed either, and after the death of Bognos this building too fell into disrepair and was finally officially closed in 2007. Since then Consonno has been a ghost town, also completely devastated during a rave by thousands of revelers .
Today, area residents repeatedly stage festivals on the abandoned site. It’s covered in graffiti that looks out of place against the kitschy buildings. Like 60 years ago, there are now plans to raze the city to the ground. Those in Milan can visit Consonno on a day trip. However, the last kilometer must be tackled on foot, as the access road is notoriously impassable. However, Consonno is no longer officially open to the public and since 2021 the remaining buildings have been fenced off and classified as unsafe.
Also of interest: probably the most beautiful ghost village in the world
What should happen to Consonno?
Like the local newspaper”The Province of Lecco“ he wrote a few years ago, the Municipality of Olginate plans to use the Consonno area for other purposes in the future. So some buildings on the Consonno hill are to be demolished. Much of the site will be landscaped and turned into a public park. However, the newspaper has not provided a timetable for the implementation of these planning measures – and so far there are no further details on the procedure. Tragic, because the former magnificent Las Vegas in Italy is increasingly falling into a ghost town.
