Buca del Corno
Distance: 5.33 km
Elevation Gain: 304 m
Elevation Loss: 103 m
Difficulty:
377 (Moderate)
FIETS Index: 2.86 FIETS
Avg Grade: 10.14 %
Max cat climb: 3
Min elevation: 275 m
Max elevation: 556 m
Ride Category:
Epic Climb
This short, steep road climbs from Entratico, on the river Cherio in the Val Cavallina about 20 km east of Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy. On the way it passes close to the Buca del Corno, a cave about 400 m long carved by water, with traces of Stone Age people; the cave even appears on Entratico’s coat of arms. An engraving of its entrance was printed in the first edition of Antonio Stoppani’s Il Bel Paese (1876), for decades one of Italy’s most-read books.
The ride climbs past the turn-off for the cave to the hamlet of Selva, in Zandobbio, with its church of Sant’Anna, built in 1736. Zandobbio’s white dolomite, quarried since Roman times, was used for Bergamo’s Porta San Giacomo. The road continues towards the hilltop sanctuary of San Giovanni delle Formiche, still visited by pilgrims, and the ride ends short of it.
