History of Italy on Lake Como: the Dongo Treasure Mystery

In the Lake Como’s area very important historical events have taken place about the history of Italy, even if in part they remained unknown. One of the most famous mysteries is that Dongo Treasure Mystery. Do you know it?

What was the Dongo Treasure Mystery?

The “Dongo Treasure” was the name of the goods that Benito Mussolini had with him when he was captured by partisans on April 27th, 1945. It seems that the leader and some loyalists were trying to flee to Switzerland or Germany when they were stopped outside Musso, a village on the left bank of Lake Como, to the north of Moltrasio. Mussolini’s escape was interrupted only in Dongo, the town from which derives the name of the seized goods. The curious note of this whole story is that no one knows yet what happened to this treasure, nor its exact value. This fact happened in a very difficult period of confusion for our country. It seems that the Dongo Treasure contained documents, bags full of gold, jewels and coins. Someone says that the Treasury had been entrusted to a partisan to be inventoried, but this list was lost.

The Dongo Treasure Mystery and History of Italy

We do not know exactly what happened to him the Dongo Treasure because there are several versions of the fact. What we know for sure, and we like to share with our readers, it is that somehow our lake has been a participant of this great mystery which is still part of the History of Italy. Various legal proceedings and plots followed to identify what happened to this gold. Like how often happened when we talk of the great Italian mysteries, investigations ended in a stalemate.

A curious anecdote related to this story

Some Gold bar were launched in our lake near to Mera’s river. Can you imagine the surprised face of the fisherman who found them the morning after? It seems they were more than 35 kg of gold. These were only (it seems) a small part of the treasure, which apparently had a total value of 189.657.000.000 Lire (in 1949), a very high sum for those times! That money were an interesting treasure for more than one, and unfortunately greed prevailed.

What remains to us is this mystery linked to our Lake Como and the certainty that part of the Italian history took place here, on our shores between our towns. Discover the history of Italy walking along the lake’s banks or visiting the exhibition dedicated to the Great War that will be open until June 2016 in Como. Here you can find all the details.

Are you interested on history? I, Patrizia and all the staff are looking forward to advise you the best route to explore the historical facts that happened into our beautiful area.

Photo Credits: Wikimedia