The ghost town of Consonno: how did the Italian “Las Vegas” go to ruin?

Among all the ghost towns in Italy Consonno it is certainly one of the most famous: radically transformed in the 1960s by Count Mario Bagno, this place went from being a peasant village to becoming a sort of all-Italian Las Vegas. Inside, houses and stables made way for hotels and restaurants, albeit one terrible environmental management caused several landslides who, isolating the town, decreed its death. Today it remains a abandoned place, symbol of unsustainable ambitions and of nature’s strength in reclaiming its spaces.

The old village of Consonno

Brianza, early twentieth century. On the eastern side of Mount Regina, at 634 meters above sea level, there was the small village of Consonno, inhabited by 300 people – mainly farmers. The country supported itself mainly through the collection of chestnuts, celery And leeks which were then taken to Olginate, the village downstream, connected to Consonno only by a long and narrow mule track. They were rather poor people, and in fact the houses in which they lived were not owned by them but by an agency, Immobiliare Consonno Brianza, owned by two rich families, the Verga and the Anghileri.

It was a fairly anonymous place, where life flowed slowly and followed the rhythm of nature… At least until the arrival of Count Mario Bagno, the protagonist of our story.

Who was Count Bagno

Born in Vercelli on 24 February 1901, the “Grand Officer Mario Bagno, Count of Valle dell’Olmo” was one of the richest and most eccentric entrepreneurs of the Italian twentieth century, known at the time for being a important entrepreneur in the construction sector. In reality, not much information is available online about his life: the few things we know come from interviews and stories of people who knew him. He is often described as a singular and eccentric character, a visionary entrepreneur who, for better or worse, was looking for a place to create a party city. In his mind, it would be the flagship of Italian entertainment.

When Count Mario Bagno laid his eyes on Consonno he understood that this was the right place to be transformed into a new Las Vegas. To do this he would first have to cajole the farmers and appear as a benefactor in their eyes. He would then have to create infrastructure for connect Consonno to the rest of the valley and build hotels, restaurants, dance halls, shops, car tracks and anything else he could think of to attract tourists. Everything was ready to begin.

The arrival of Count Bagno in Consonno

Once he arrived in Consonno, the count made agreements with the municipality and financed the construction of a road for trucks which would allow connecting Consonno with the nearby town of Olginate. It was a difficult period for the farmers, the harvests were not going very well, and therefore the count’s intervention was at first seen as providential: it was the foreigner who helped the small village, also allowing the farmers to reach Olginate in a much simpler way, without having to travel the steep mule track every day.

There road constructionhowever, had a double purpose: on the one hand it allowed some farmers to move to Olginate, thus starting to depopulate the village in an organic way. Secondly, this road served as a passage for bulldozers, concrete mixers And truck, essential to build the city of toys. Obviously the Count didn’t let his facts leak out right away

and true intentions, and at first he made it clear that the village would remain the same, hotels would simply be added to accommodate tourists and encourage agri-tourism.

This is what workers and bulldozers are for, to build buildings hotel! This is what the farmers thought, and they also said to themselves that perhaps this could be an opportunity to earn something more. The count’s initiatives were therefore welcomed with enthusiasm. At least for now.

The construction of the Italian “Las Vegas”.

January 8, 1962. This is a turning point day for the village. In fact, that day the families Anghileri and Verga of Immobiliare Consonno Brianza they sold all the shares of their real estate company to the Bagno family for the modest sum of 22.5 million lire – equivalent to approximately 327 thousand euros currently. This is the day when Count Bagno officially became the owner of Consonno.

At this point there was no longer any reason to lie and the remaining peasants immediately understood what the problem was true function of the bulldozers: raze the entire village to the ground. According to the testimonies collected over time, it seems that some houses came demolished without even notifying those who lived there, forcing them to be forcibly transferred to some barracks set up outside the country.

In no time at all, the farmers’ houses were completely razed to the ground and only the old Consonno was spared three buildingswhich in reality still exist today: the church of San Maurizio, the rectory and the cemetery. Among other things, speaking of the cemetery: nearby there was a hill which however would have limited the view and therefore, imagine, to allow customers to have a nice view, the count ordered it to be lowered, demolishing the top using explosives and bulldozers. Obviously those were different times, there wasn’t the environmental awareness we have today, but the landscape certainly underwent one radical transformation. A transformation that did not take into account the hydrogeological balances typical of the mountain environment.

Knocking down hills, building roads, buildings and in general cement, without taking into account the characteristics of the environment, it is not a very smart move, because the more heavily you intervene on the environment, the more likely it is that in the event of adverse weather events some disaster, because the soil is weaker and cannot handle for example a large amount of rain. In fact, as you may have guessed, heavy rains occur during the works with consequent consequences landslides: the most relevant were those of November 1966 And of April 1967. Keep this information in mind as it will come in handy later. For now it is enough to know that the count not only did not stop the works but rather did everything possible to inaugurate the new Consonno as soon as possible.

The birth of the city of toys

In the space of a few months the village was radically transformed: where previously there were stone houses and stables there now stood a grand hotel, the Plaza Hotel, the beating heart of the new Italian Las Vegas. There was also a minaret high 30 meters to give an Arabian feel, one Chinese pagoda to recall the east, one Egyptian sphinx and an old man cannon taken directly from Cinecittà. There was also a triumphal entrance with two grandees towers in medieval style and in various parts of the city promotional signs were installed such as: “In Consonno the sky is bluer” or “Consonno is the smallest but most beautiful town in the world”.

Obviously there were also restaurants, fountains, artificial lakes and the most famous artists of the period were called to perform in the Party Hall, like Pippo Baudo, Mina, Celentano, Milva and DikDik. According to the witnesses’ accounts, at the time there was legalized gaming – therefore like bingo – although according to others poker was also played in some private rooms. But these remain unconfirmed rumors. Las Vegas style weddings were also celebrated in the city and not far from Consonno, Count Bagno also began work to create a new circuit of Formula 1!

In short, everything was going swimmingly, and witnesses of the time compared the place to a gigantic amusement park.

Why was Consonno abandoned? The end of the dream

If, on the one hand, Consonno became a very popular destination, on the other hand it is right to point out how a certain part of the local politics would see of bad eye this place, given its environmental impact and the fact that it was not in harmony with the rest of the landscape. The climate was then tense … but unlike what we might expect, the real coup de grace was not of a political nature. Do you remember the landslides I told you about before? Well, that was a wake-up call that was missed: in October in 1976 a new landslide swept away the only road leading to the countryleaving him isolated.

It might seem like a small thing: in fact, to reopen the road it is necessary for the authorities to remove the rock blocks and for the damaged portion of the road to be rebuilt. The problem, however, is that between the municipality and the count relations were terribleso not only did it take a long time to remove the boulders from the road, but the permit to build a new road was late in arriving. In the end, after a long wait – we’re talking about months, although I haven’t found an exact date – Consonno was opened to the public again, but by now the interest in this village was starting to wane, and day after day the city of Consonno was increasingly distant from the minds of tourists.

This decreed the death of Consonno, who remained isolated long enough to be soon forgotten by everyone.
The Count, however, did not give up, and with one last sprint he tried to save what could be saved, transforming the Plaza hotel into a house of restbut his efforts were to no avail. Mario Bagno died October 22, 1995 at 94 years of age, and in the retirement home also closed in the early 2000sofficially putting an end to this project.

Consonno today

In a very short time the buildings became a meeting place for young people looking for adventure, and – despite the dangerousness of the buildings due to their precarious structure – it was decided to carry out a rave party in 2007. During the event the participants devastated and vandalized a large part of the structures, forcing the municipality of Olginate to intervene more decisively to limit activities of this type in the former city of toys and trying to promote activities to enhance what remains.

Today the city can be seen as a warning of our limits, as a way to remind us that nature, after all, is capable of take back your space at all times.
And in case anyone was wondering, buildings are still property of the Consonno real estate company and the whole village was put up for sale in 2014 for 12 million euros – although to date no buyer has yet come forward.

To date, Consonno is accessible by car all year round only from the road that goes up from Villa Vergano.