La Nairola

Mosaic form:

Authors: Luca Mandaglio of ComoRaku

Year of publication: 2020

Map:

Information about the work:

Tenacious balance.
For millennia it has towered over Blevio
Symbol of delicate and tenacious balance
Bearer of stories and legends heard in silence between the sky and the lake.

LA PREA NAIROLA

The Nairola Stone is located from Pissarottino di Brunate to Montepiatto di Torno. It appears as a large flat, subhorizontal table, 7.4 m long by 4 m wide and about 4.5 height, protruding from the mountain slope, consisting of a block of gland one from the Val Masino (Valtellina). In addition to some cup marks, there are other pre- or protohistoric engravings on the Boulder: one resembling a footprint and a gully that runs eave-like around the summative part of the Boulder.

Two different legends exist about this stone. The first, probably older, says that on the Nariola Stone stood the devil; opposite, on top of another boulder (now destroyed), a companion of his, and together they enjoyed playing ball, sending it back to each other. On the now-disappeared fountain, it seems that, as a reminder of this sinister game, a clear hemispherical footprint remained left by the bounce of the ball that escaped the less experienced devil's hand. The second version, decidedly Christian, that L.M. Gaffuri in the book " I Trovanti ", claims to have been born probably to exorcise the demonic part of the rock, instead it would justify the protruding position of the boulder with a miraculous intervention of the Virgin that would have kept him with his cloak in his descent; they built a hundred meters below a little chapel dedicated precisely to the Madonna, which you can also reach from the hamlet of Mezzovico in the municipality of Blevio.

Technique used:

Mosaic was created in the ComoRaku Atelier by artists Luca Mandaglio and Elisa Castelnovo, entirely handmade in stoneware.

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