An old street in the fishermen’s quarter, traditionally known as Via da ‘Muu (Street of Love), where the inhabitants of Angera were accustomed to exchange promises of eternal love.
Contrada d’Amore or Via da ‘Muu is the name that local people usually gave to the road that joined one side of the Tigli dei Pescatori (Site 16) to Via Greppi and the area of the ex-church of San Vittore (Site 11).
The name also appears in the 1856 cadastral map of Angera, but in 1871 the road was called Vicolo dei Pescatori, in 1911 it became Via San Martino, and lastly in 1945 Via Arturo Merzagora, in honour of a young partisan shot in 1944.
The square in front of the ex-church of San Vittore, generally known as Piazzetta San Vittore, in 1925 (Council records, 4th July) was entitled Largo Cesare Battisti – although this name soon disappeared: it is not present in an official list of Angera’s roads compiled in 1937.
The old Street of Love was inhabited mainly by the fishermen of Angera and when the church of San Vittore was deconsecrated in the late 1800s, the fishermen used its nave as a storeroom for fishing gear.
The etymological origin of the expression da Muu (of Love) is doubtful; it was perhaps derived from the name of a family that lived in the street, but the reference to Love gave rise to a unique local tradition during the 1900s: young people of Angera used to go and kiss in this road, which has many small hidden courtyards, and proposal of marriage were made here.
The text was written in part by Remo Cardana.