Besano

Located in the Valceresio Valley, near the Swiss border, it has a geologic history that goes back to the Triassic Period.

The Valceresio Valley is the extension into Italian territory of the fossiliferous strata of the Swiss Monte San Giorgio, Unesco's World Heritage. The fossil specimens housed in the Museo dei Fossili in Besano and in the Museum of Natural History in Induno Olona testify the geologic evolution of the Valceresio and the presence of dinosaurs in the territory.

In 1993 near Besano, has been found the largest and most complete marine reptile ever found in Italy, and one of the world's best preserved ichthyosaur from the Triassic period (about 235 million year ago). The Besanosaurus leptorhynchus lived in the calm and shallow waters of Besano lagoon, bordering the Tethys Ocean, an ancient tropical sea.

In more recent time, on San Martino hill that towers the town there was a castrum, formerly a celtic fortification, in defence of the route to the lake.

To see:

- San Martino di Tours' Church, with a fine marble altar by the sculptors Giovanni Maria Giudici and Giovanni Rizzi from Viggiù, and the wood carved sacristy, pulpit and confessionals

- Madonna's Church, on San Martino hill, with paintings of the 1600s. Along the way that links the Town Hall to the hill there are the 14 stations of a via Crucis, rebuilt and frescoed by Franco Vasconi in 1988-89

- San Giovanni Battista's Sanctuary, in which a statuette of the Longobard's patron, San Giovanni Battista, given to the Besano inhabitants by Queen Teodolinda is preserved. It's tradition that this statuette is miracolous and is still venerated the 24th June during the "Fiera dei Malsani" (the Sickly Fair)

- the Museo Civico dei Fossili