The Sanctuary of Santa Maria del Lavello, was built in medieval times and used to be a castle in defence of the passage between the two banks of the Adda river.
It was also a strategic area and a transit point along the “pedemontana” road from Como to Bergamo.
Next to the castle stood a small church, probably an attached religious building.
In the twelfth century both structures were damaged because of numerous battles, and the castle was semi-destroyed.
Some hermits found refuge among the ruins, and rebuilt a larger church in 1480. During the construction something miraculous suddenly happened, as it seems a completely paralyzed child healed out of the blue.
Because of this event, the place became the destination of numerous pilgrimages and over the time Priests were given several lands;
Soon the pilgrims became too many and since the space was insufficient to accommodate them all, the nave of the church was enlarged, and a second altar built.
During the course of the 17th century, with the advent of the plague, the convent was transformed into a hospital and the friars died in the attempt to cure the sick people.
After the plague, other Priests restored the building, brought to light the frescoes, previously covered, and expanded the structure, so the influx of people that had stopped in the previous years resumed.
The convent was completely self-sufficient as it had two vegetable gardens, but in 1772 the Venetian Senate ordered its suppression and the priests definitively abandoned it; the coup de grace was given by the damages of the Second World War, and only in 1948 the reopening of the church was possible.
Today the space of the cloisters of Lavello is used for exhibitions, concerts and other events.
It’s also possible to visit the church, and a hotel and a bar have been established in the former spaces of the monastery.
SANTA MARIA’S CHURCH
- INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH
Archaeological excavations have revealed a small church.
The walls of that church are currently visible under the floor plan of the church through a slab of glass that has turned this archaeological area into a museum.
It is likely that the small chapel was attached to the feudal castle. Here, following the tradition, one of the hermits, while restoring the now abandoned structure, brought to light the miraculous water.
In the southern outer perimeter, just east of the current entrance of the church, there is the miraculous water tank.
- THE PICTORIAL DECORATION OF THE CHURCH
The oldest and most interesting finding of the pictorial decoration is certainly the Crucifixion, placed on the back wall of the current left apse chapel, dating back to 1487.
The author is unknown.
Three fragments also belong to this first pictorial phase and are painted on the northern wall of the church.
They are partially mutilated because of the creation of the Cappella della Passione (Chapel of Passion), now dedicated to San Filippo Benizi.
Better preserved is the fragment placed in the following span, always on the northern wall: it is a devotional fresco contemporary with the Annunciation, that represents the Virgin with child and donors.
An inscription in Gothic characters on the upper edge reveals the client’s name, Francesco Giovanni Maria Grattarola dalla Valsassina.
At the feet of the Virgin stand a woman, whose hairstyle and refined clothing denote a good socio-economic level, and the figure of a boy, probably her son, towards whom the Child Jesus juts out with a blessing act. The Madonna sits on a throne with classical shapes, while her lovely face and the mantle with the typical brocade with pomegranate design still shows a late Gothic taste.
- THE CHAPEL OF THE NORTHERN SIDE (DEDICATED TO SAN FILIPPO BENIZI) The chapel is part of the structural renovations carried out in the penultimatedecade of the 16th century.
The decoration is interesting for the successful attempt to illustrate the space through a perspective pictorial system.
The date 1583 engraved on the side portal probably refers to the consecration of the altar made with faux marble walls.
The vault has fake mirrors to frame the central bezel, which depicts Christ’s Prayer in the Garden of Olives.
The angel appears to Christ kneeling in prayer towards the objects of the Passion: the cross and the chalice.
In 1673 the chapel, today known as San Filippo Benizi, was dedicated to the Servant of Mary, San Filippo Benizi, who had been beatified two years earlier.
- THE DECORATIVE PHASE BETWEEN THE XVI AND XVII CENTURY
The renovation of the church occupied the last two decades of the 16th century.
Today nothing remains of the decoration of the arch, as in 1947 the whole surface was repainted with a grandiose image of Our Lady of Peace, painted after the horrors of World War II. The four rounds are also painted with busts of the Evangelists.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century most of the works of the two chapels were completed. Decoration of the chapel on the left: on the back wall above the Crucifixion there is a vast surface, decorated with a scene of the Nascita di Maria (Maria’s Birth); the right chapel depicts the scene of the Assunzione di Maria (Assumption of Mary).