Sedrina is an Italian town of 2,555 inhabitants (called sedrinesi) in the province of Bergamo, in Lombardy.
Situated at the entrance of the Brembana Valley, it is about 15 kilometres north of the orobic capital. The municipality is part of the mountain community of the Brembana Valley.
The origins of the town are not completely clear, even if it seems that small settlements were already present in Roman times. In this regard, it seems that even the toponym dates back to that period, deriving from Sedulina, diminutive of seat.
However, the settlements never developed in a consistent way, given the very isolated position of the village, connected to the towns further down the valley only by narrow paths, because of a "bottleneck" of the valley itself just south of the town. The easiest roads led only to the north, in the direction of Zogno and its hamlets, or to the orographic right of the valley, from where it was possible to reach Clanezzo and Brembilla by means of suspension bridges over the Brembo river, already mentioned in documents dating back to the 2nd century.
However, this isolation defended the village during the barbarian invasions and the faction struggles between Guelphs and Ghibellines. In medieval times it was included in the territories managed by the Bishop of Bergamo, and administratively united with Almè, from which it separated during the 14th century to form the municipality of Sedrina and Stabello with the homonymous village situated further north (now linked to Zogno).
The arrival of the Republic of Venice marked a turning point in the existence of the village: the Serenissima decided to build a road, the Via Priula, which directly connected the city of Bergamo with the Brembana valley via Sedrina. Completed in 1593, this very daring work took Sedrina and the neighbouring villages out of commercial isolation thanks to an intervention, called the keys of Botta, which allowed to overcome the natural obstacles located in Botta.
Italian