Predore

Predore sits on the shore, in the province of Bergamo, beyond the Valcalepio, with Monte Bronzone rising to 1,334 meters directly behind the village. The Roman villa beneath the streets extended from that mountain slope down to the ancient lakeside port, a footprint that ties the buried baths to the water rather than to the modern center. In the medieval period the village was a fortress with two lakeside towers protecting the palace, a different kind of relationship to the shore than the villa's, defense rather than leisure.

The votive altar found in the centro storico dates the site's aristocratic connections to around 201 AD, through the family of consul Marco Nonio Arrio Cuciano, while the cave above the village holds finds from a much earlier period, the only cave dwellings of that period in the whole Bergamo area. Taken together, the layers run from Neolithic cave to Roman villa to medieval fortress, each occupying a different part of the same short rise from water to mountain.