Have you ever heard of the Twin Lakes? Have you ever visited them? They are located in Val Brembana, a valley in the province of Bergamo which owes its name to the Brembo river, which crosses it. The Twin Lakes, located in the municipality of Branzi, are linked to an ancient legend.
If today they form a single lake that separates only when the dam is emptied, originally they were truly twins, separated by a narrow strip of land, and it was precisely then that the sad story that sees them as protagonists was born.
It is said that the daughter of a rich landowner from Branzi fell in love with a shepherd from Val Taleggio, but the girl’s family was not in favor of the relationship due to the modest conditions of her boyfriend.
Her father had decided to marry her to another, decidedly wealthier man. The girl absolutely didn’t want to marry him but her parents, regardless of her wishes, set the wedding date. In utter desperation, the girl lost her appetite and began to delirious.
No doctor was able to cure her until a young, humble-looking doctor showed up at their door and managed to lift her spirits and cure her permanently. The doctor was actually his beloved pastor.
The two, knowing that sooner or later they would be discovered, decided to run away, but the people of the town soon noticed it and started looking for them. They had chosen to travel along a mountain road that was little traveled but very dangerous. She fainted following an accident, the shepherd picked her up but a little further on she slipped on the stones, falling together with her beloved.
Their bodies gave rise to two basins which over time filled with water, transforming into the two Twin Lakes, which following the construction of the dam in 1932, became a single lake.
SOURCES: Legends of the Brembana/Saliinvetta Valley
