Cologno al Serio borders the following municipalities: Brignano Gera d'Adda, Ghisalba, Martinengo, Morengo, Romano di Lombardia, Spirano, Urgnano.

The first human settlements in the area date back to about four thousand years ago, in the Bronze Age, as evidenced by the discovery of skeletons and tools: these make Cologno al Serio one of the oldest archaeological sites in the province of Bergamo.

[4] The new rulers gave a first urban organization to the village, which began to take on increasing importance: studies in this sense were greatly helped by findings concerning skeletons, funeral kits, vases and coins of the time of Vespasian.

[4] There was also a military road that, also used for commercial transport, passed from Cologno al Serio connecting Bergamo with Piacenza, thus increasing the possibilities of exchange of the inhabitants.

[5] During the sixth century the arrival of the Longobards occurred, of which has reached another important find, always found on the municipal territory of Cologno, consisting of a clay table (now kept in the Archeological Museum of Bergamo) engraved with the name of six inhabitants of the time.

[4] The subsequent development of feudalism, favoured by the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, marked a new era for the village of Cologno al Serio.

Initially assigned to Otto III to Ulrich, he later saw a period of deep political and social instability, caused by the bloody clashes between Guelphs and Ghibellines.

[5] It was during this period that the town began to acquire numerous fortifications, including a castle with a moat, designed to defend the territory that, at the centre of the aims of the contenders, was plundered at the end of the twelfth century by Frederick Barbarossa and twice by the Milanese.

[5] The subsequent beginning of the lordship of the Visconti did not calm the clashes, which not only continued to disturb the life of the town but also grew due to the construction of another castle, in Liteggio, managed by the Lanzi family.

[7] Following this appointment, which took place on 10 March 1455, he was assigned as a residence the castle of Malpaga; Colleoni was also recognized as a personal field of the territories of Romano, Martinengo, Urgnano and Cologno.

[8] With the Peace of Lodi of 9 April 1454 Cologno al Serio was recognized as an important Venetian outpost, given its strategic geographical position; the border between Venice and the Duchy of Milan, ran along the moat that divided the town from Brignano.

For this reason, on 7 August 1484, the Captain of Bergamo sent his representative to Cologno and take possession of it, leaving the lieutenant Bergando Viti[9] In the following years, Cologno, as a border town, was the centre of clashes disputes inherent in the Lombard territory; suffered sieges, experienced countless political changes as well as the invasions of French, Spanish, German and Milanese troops.

In March 1797, in fact, Bergamo and its provinces met under the Cispadane Republic for the will of the French domination, which had managed to penetrate the Italian territory even if this created numerous discontent and failed attempts of the rebellion.

[6] The last significant historical change related to the history of the municipality occurred in 1859 when Cologno al Serio, together with the rest of the province of Bergamo, became part of the Kingdom of Italy.

In particular, fifteen of these died directly at the front, in a concentration camp in Germany, two during the siege of German soldiers and seventeen dispersed at the sea or in Russia.

[10] The historic centre of Cologno al Serio has great importance, having maintained the original structure that the village-owned in medieval times.

Among these, the fortress located to the north was the most fortified, being originally equipped with thicker walls and two side towers to be used as base posts for the allocation of sentinels.

The fortress is accessed through an arched portal that presents the coat of arms of Cologno al Serio and that connects to the central tower.

A prior was also appointed to supervise the patients, supported by armed sentries, in order to prevent the sick from breaking the quarantine or the rules of visiting their loved ones.

The choice of this place was dictated by epidemiological reasons: this location, in fact, is about 3.5 kilometres from the town, a distance such as to avoid contact between infected and healthy people but, at the same time, sufficiently small to allow smooth and rapid transport of patients.

The coat of arms of Cologno al Serio, dating back to the twelfth-thirteenth century, represents a column surmounted by a crown.