Romanesque Churches on Lake Como: Which Are, When They Open, How to Get There

Lake Como has many churches that official sources call Romanesque, but not all of them can be visited and not all have stayed Romanesque. The editors’ pick if you have one day: Civate, on a Saturday or Sunday. At San Pietro al Monte the guided visit is free and you get there by train plus about an hour on a footpath. If you want to stay by the lake, go to Gravedona: Santa Maria del Tiglio is open every day according to the tourist sources. Here you find which buildings are truly Romanesque, what is left of them after the restorations, when you can go in and how to get there, with opening times read on 7 October 2026.

In brief

• In Como the regional catalogue calls Sant’Abbondio a unique example for the area. San Fedele and San Carpoforo have medieval parts, but the restorations of the 19th and 20th centuries brought them back to Romanesque forms that are hard to tell from the original.
• You can go in every day at Sant’Abbondio, San Fedele (Monday afternoon only), Santa Maria del Tiglio, Santa Maria in Martinico at Dongo and the church of Piona, which closes at lunchtime.
• You can only go in on certain days or by booking at San Pietro al Monte, San Calocero (next guided visit: Sunday 18 October) and San Fedelino.
• The season is ending: the Isola Comacina closes at the end of October. On Sunday 1 November San Pietro al Monte is closed, because it is All Saints’ Day.
• Not open to visitors: Santa Maria di Loppia, on private property, and San Vincenzo at Gera Lario, open only during services.

What is truly Romanesque

The churches that the sources call Romanesque range from the second half of the 10th century, with the oratory of San Fedelino, to the 12th, with Santa Maria del Tiglio. Almost none has reached us as it was: over the centuries they were lengthened, frescoed and filled with Baroque stucco, and in the 19th century people tried to clean them up and take them back to the Middle Ages. Before you go it helps to know what you are about to look at.

Como shows this well. Sant’Abbondio is dated by the regional catalogue between 1050 and 1095, the year Pope Urban II consecrated it. It has five aisles on cylindrical pillars and two bell towers, choices the catalogue calls unusual for Como Romanesque. Of the two towers, though, only the south one is original: the Region’s portal writes that the north tower was pulled down in the 19th century and rebuilt.

San Fedele says the opposite. Of the three original apses only the central one is intact, the interior is Baroque, with the 17th-century barrel vault and stucco, and from 1867 a series of restorations brought back Romanesque forms, façade included. The catalogue speaks of a building more ideal than real. San Carpoforo has a core from the first half of the 11th century and a bell tower, crypt and apse from the late 11th or early 12th. The year 1040, that of the Benedictine monastery usually quoted, rests on documents that a recent critical analysis considers apocryphal, and the text the Region published for a visit on 21 June 2025 recalls that between the 19th and 20th centuries the church was taken back “to presumed Romanesque forms”.

Periods and Romanesque parts, church by church

Church	Period according to the sources	What is left
Sant’Abbondio, Como	1050-1095, consecrated in 1095	Five aisles, two bell towers (the north one rebuilt in the 19th century), apse with 14th-century frescoes
San Fedele, Como	From the 10th to the first half of the 12th century	The central apse; Baroque interior and a façade restored after 1867
San Carpoforo, Como	Core in the first half of the 11th, bell tower, crypt and apse between late 11th and early 12th	Three-aisled crypt, bell tower, apse; 19th and 20th-century restorations
San Pietro al Monte, Civate	From the early 9th to the late 11th century	Basilica with ciborium, three-aisled crypt, frescoes and stucco
San Calocero, Civate	Enlarged in Romanesque forms around the 11th century	Raised presbytery, apse, Romanesque frescoes in the attic
Santa Maria del Tiglio, Gravedona	Second half of the 12th century	Bell tower joined to the façade, black and white stonework, sunken baptismal font of the older baptistery
Abbey of Piona, Colico	Priory; cloister with plaques of 1252 and 1257	Romanesque church and cloister with round arches
San Fedelino, Sorico	Second half of the 10th century	Square-plan oratory with apse, among the oldest examples of Como Romanesque according to the catalogue
Santa Maria in Martinico, Dongo	Late 11th-12th century	Plain façade with a cross-shaped window; Madonna della Misericordia fresco from 1310-1315
San Vincenzo, Gera Lario	Between the 11th and 12th century, rebuilt in the 15th	Romanesque origin, 15th-century building
Sant’Eufemia, Isola Comacina	Around 1030-1031 according to some studies, late 11th century according to others	Remains with octagonal pillars; 19th and 20th-century restorations have made the Romanesque parts hard to read
Santi Giacomo e Filippo, Spurano	Late 11th to 14th century (catalogue); 12th century (FAI)	Cycle of Romanesque frescoes on the north wall, bell gable
Santo Stefano and baptistery, Lenno	Late 11th to 17th century	11th-century crypt and octagonal baptistery, described as a rare, well-preserved Romanesque example; church altered in the 16th and 17th centuries
Sant’Eufemia, Incino (Erba)	10th to 16th century (catalogue)	Romanesque bell tower of the 12th century according to the municipality
San Giovanni Battista, Varenna	11th century	Romanesque bell tower, 16th-century frescoes

Where dates differ, as on the Isola Comacina, we give the range: the difference is a few decades and does not change the visit.

When they are open

We read the times below on 7 October 2026 on the pages of municipalities, parishes, abbeys and tourist bodies. Many pages do not say which year they apply to: where the year is missing we say so, and a time without a year is a guide, not a promise.

Church	When you can go in	Cost and booking
Sant’Abbondio	Every day 8-18, in winter until 16.30 (the page does not say from when); closed to visitors during services	Free entry
San Fedele	Tuesday-Sunday 8-12 and 15.30-19, Monday 15.30-19 only (Comune di Como); the Region writes 8.30-12 and 15.30-19, except during services	Free entry
San Carpoforo	The sources disagree: the Comune’s tourist portal writes “open only for guided visits”, a city page “generally open 8 to 19”	Ask first: the contacts are on the VisitComo portal
San Pietro al Monte	March-October Saturday and Sunday 10-12.30 and 14-16; November-February Sunday 10-12.30 and 14-15, Saturday by booking only; Tuesday-Friday by booking only; Monday closed	Free guided visit with a voluntary offering; book online until midnight the day before at weekends, by noon the day before on weekdays
San Calocero	Guided visit usually on the first and third Sunday of the month; the next ones scheduled are 18 October, 8 and 22 November, 6 and 20 December (the page gives no year, but these are Sundays in 2026). Monastery at 14.30, Casa del Pellegrino at 16	5 euros per site, free under 14 and for people with disabilities; booking required at least 24 hours before
Santa Maria del Tiglio	Every day, from 8 (North Lake Como) or 8.30 (the Region) to 19; in summer 2026 the pastoral community gave 8-18.30 until 14 September	Cost not stated
Piona	Church and cloister 8-12 and 14-18.30 according to the abbey and Visit Colico, 9-12 and 14-17 according to North Lake Como for 2026; outdoor areas 7-19	Guided visit by the monks for a free offering, with advance notice
San Fedelino	May-September, Saturday, Sunday and holidays 14-17; from the end of October by booking. The page does not say for October	1 euro, 0.50 reduced; special opening 40 euros
Santa Maria in Martinico	Every day 9-18 (no year given)	Cost not stated
San Vincenzo, Gera Lario	Open only during the church service	Not stated
Isola Comacina	Every day 10-18 until the end of October; Antiquarium Thursday-Sunday 11-17	Ticket at the Antiquarium or at the automatic ticket machine on the island, cards only; prices on the island’s website
Varenna, San Giovanni Battista	“Always open” (no year given)	Not stated

For Spurano, Lenno and Incino we found no opening times on an official source: ask the parish. At Piona, if you are close to a closing time, choose the slot the sources agree on: 9-12 or 14-17.

Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October are the FAI Autumn Days. We did not find the list of places open in Como and Lecco: check the FAI website before you go.

Four trips without a car

Como: three basilicas in town

Sant’Abbondio stands outside the walls, along via Regina Teodolinda; San Fedele is in the old town; San Carpoforo is at Camerlata, at the foot of the Baradello, in another part of the city. The first two fit well in one morning; for San Carpoforo a separate trip makes sense, after checking whether it is open. Our itinerary Medieval Como puts them in sequence together with the walls and Castel Baradello. How to reach Como and which trains and boats to take is in the guide Getting to Lake Como.

Civate: the climb and the afternoon visit

This is the fullest trip, and at weekends it needs planning. Line S7 from Milan via Monza and Molteno reaches Civate station; from Como and Lecco there is the C40 bus, and the most convenient stop for San Pietro al Monte is Civate - Paese - Municipio, writes the association that looks after the basilica. From there you climb on foot: the main path (number 10) starts from the Pozzo district or the Valle dell’Oro, has about 350 metres of climb and takes about an hour. The association asks for hiking boots or shoes and warns never to set the basilica as your destination on Google Maps: use one of their car parks, or the town.

On one of the scheduled Sundays (18 October, 8 or 22 November) you can make two visits: San Pietro al Monte with the 11.30 guide, then down for the 14.30 visit to the monastery of San Calocero and, at 16, to the Casa del Pellegrino. The association gives only the climbing time, not the descent: leave some margin. On other days the church of San Calocero is visited during services, Monday to Friday at 17.30 and Saturday and Sunday at 9, or by contacting the chaplain at the Casa del Cieco; the guided visit, instead, includes the attic with the Romanesque frescoes. Our itinerary Civate: the climb to San Pietro al Monte and San Calocero describes the route.

Tremezzina: Spurano, Lenno and the Isola Comacina

Here the way to go is the Greenway: about 10 kilometres and three and a half hours on foot, with San Giacomo at Spurano roughly halfway, according to the FAI. You come back by boat or by ASF bus C110, which stops at Ossuccio (stop Isola Comacina) and at Lenno (stop Chiesa). At the collegiate church of Santo Stefano in Lenno the piece to see is the baptistery. To reach the Isola Comacina you need the Navigazione Lago di Como boat or a private water taxi, and it is best to go before 31 October. For boat times and prices see the guide to tickets; the Greenway is described in the article on the lake’s walking routes, and our itinerary Ossuccio and the Isola Comacina on foot takes in Spurano and the ruins.

Upper Lake: Gravedona, Dongo, Piona and San Fedelino

The C110 stops at Dongo (piazza Paracchini), Gravedona (piazza San Rocco), Gera (SS Regina 40), Sorico (piazza Battisti) and Colico station: the winter timetable is valid from 14 September 2026 to 8 June 2027. In Gravedona the church not to miss is Santa Maria del Tiglio; in Dongo, Santa Maria in Martinico; at Gera Lario San Vincenzo can be seen from outside, because it opens only for services.

Piona can be reached by boat, as the abbey itself writes, on foot from Colico, according to Visit Colico, or by train, getting off at Piona station where only the regional trains of the Lecco-Sondrio line stop. Between the station and the abbey we found no official walking time. San Fedelino is the only one that asks for a real walk: from Dascio it is 6 kilometres each way, three hours, medium difficulty according to North Lake Como, and you can come back by boat if you book. With opening limited to weekends, 14 to 17, work out the three-hour outward walk to arrive in time.

Which are not Romanesque, and which you cannot visit

San Giorgio in Varenna was consecrated in 1313 and the Region’s portal describes it as 14th-century Lombard architecture. Santo Stefano in Canzo was built between 1728 and 1752 according to the catalogue. If you want the Romanesque in Varenna, the bell tower is the one at San Giovanni Battista. Santa Maria di Loppia is dated by the catalogue to the early 11th century, but it stands on private property and cannot be visited: you can glimpse it from the provincial road towards Como.

How we checked

Opening times, prices, booking rules and connections were read on 7 October 2026 on the original pages of operators, municipalities, tourist bodies, the regional catalogue and transport companies. Dates and descriptions come from the Lombardia Beni Culturali catalogue and the official portals. The research was done with the help of artificial intelligence tools and the practical data were checked again against the source. This is not a census of all the Romanesque churches on the lake: we included those that an official source calls Romanesque or says keep Romanesque parts.

Frequently asked questions

Which is the oldest Romanesque church among those we read?

San Fedelino, at Sorico: the regional catalogue dates it to the second half of the 10th century and calls it one of the oldest examples of Como Romanesque.

Can I go into San Pietro al Monte without booking?

The association gives opening on Saturday and Sunday, but asks you to book the guided visit: online until midnight the day before at weekends, by phone by noon the day before on weekdays, when visits are by booking only. In heavy bad weather it asks you to phone for confirmation.

Can I visit them in a wheelchair?

It depends. For Sant’Eufemia at Incino the municipality writes that the place has no architectural barriers (page updated on 2 September 2024), and Visit Colico lists Piona as accessible to disabled people. San Pietro al Monte, according to the catalogue, can only be reached on foot along a mule track. For the others we found no information.

Can I see more than one in a day?

At Civate yes, on the Sunday with the San Calocero visit. In Como two basilicas in the centre fit. The Upper Lake and Tremezzina, in our view, deserve two separate days.

What changes after 1 November?

The autumn boat timetable is valid until 1 November and then changes, the Isola Comacina has already closed at the end of October, San Pietro al Monte moves to its winter hours and on 1 November, All Saints’ Day, it is closed. Check the operators’ pages in the days before you go.

Where to go next

Each church in this guide has its own page: from Sant’Abbondio to San Fedele and San Carpoforo in Como, from the basilica of San Pietro al Monte to the church of Sant’Eufemia at Incino. If you go in autumn or winter, also see what is open from November to March.