The basilica of San Fedele stands in the square of the same name, in the heart of Como’s walled city: it is one of the two great Romanesque churches of the centre, with an unusual trefoil plan, an apse with a loggia and the “dragon portal”. It was the city’s cathedral, dedicated to Sant’Eufemia, until the title passed to Santa Maria Maggiore.
History
The first document to mention the church, with the title of Sant’Eufemia, is an imperial plea of 865, and the will of Bishop Valperto in 914 calls it a cathedral for the first time. The title was probably given in the 7th century by Bishop Agrippinus, who had founded a church of Sant’Eufemia on the Isola Comacina. The basilica was part of an episcopal complex with the baptistery of San Giovanni in Atrio, on the opposite side of the square, and the church of San Pietro in Atrio, and scholars have suggested a “double cathedral”. According to tradition, in 964 the remains of the protomartyr Fedele, killed in the Diocletian persecution near Samolaco, were brought here: hence the change of dedication and, perhaps, the passing of the cathedral title to Santa Maria Maggiore, cited as a cathedral from 1006. In 1881 the restorer Serafino Balestra reported finding in that work the remains of the primitive basilica and the foundations of a temple of Jupiter.
The present building is somewhat later. The regional record proposes dating the present layout to the first half of the 12th century, Wikipedia to 1120, UPEL between the 10th and 12th centuries without excluding an earlier structure. The 1965-66 excavations found no earlier foundations with a different layout, and it is now thought that the centrally planned design was grafted onto a three-nave, three-apse basilica, with ambulatories meant to let pilgrims circle the saint’s body. The closest comparison is the Palatine Chapel at Aachen. The bell tower partly collapsed in the earthquake of 1117 and was rebuilt in 1271 on the order of Bishop Raimondo Torriani: unstable on the clay ground, it was taken down to nearly 12 metres and rebuilt between 1903 and 1907 (1905 for other sources).
In the 16th century the facade and presbytery were altered, in the early 17th century the nave was covered with a barrel vault and in 1621 the stuccoes of the south apse were finished. In the 18th century the high altar was remade, the right eastern apsidiole was demolished to build the sacristy and the rose window was redone; in 1805 the lantern was raised. From 1867 the “stylistic” restoration promoted by Don Serafino Balestra tried to remove the additions and return to the Romanesque: the floor was lowered, the church isolated from the houses, the choir windows redone (1878) and the lantern roof (1894). The facade, rebuilt from 1914 to a design by Antonio Giussani, has a cladding of regular blocks and keeps the 1509 rose window. In 1965 the south side was partly isolated, and in 2004-2005 the apse and the portal were cleaned.
What to see
From the square you see a neo-Romanesque facade, somewhat hidden, with the 1968 mosaics by Elena Mazzari over the portals, and the square Romanesque bell tower, set to one side. The finest side is the apse, on via Vittorio Emanuele II: the main apse is polygonal, with a loggia crowned by blind arches and small columns, and capitals by the Comacine masters with animal figures and foliage. Next to the north apsidiole opens the pointed portal, in Musso marble with hanging arches in Moltrasio stone, called the “dragon” portal: the reliefs, datable between the end of the 11th century and the mid-12th, show according to the most widespread reading the prophet Habakkuk with baskets for Daniel in the lions’ den, and then chimeras, dragons and a headless siren.
The interior has a Latin-cross plan with three naves divided by quatrefoil pillars and with galleries, the only ones in Como’s Romanesque architecture. The stuccoes and the large barrel vault of the nave are 17th-century. In the chapel of the Crucifix, the glory of Paradise in the half-dome is by Isidoro Bianchi (1623), with stuccoes by Diego Carloni and four Passion canvases by his brother Carlo Innocenzo; the Madonna chapel has frescoes of 1613-1624 by Como painters, long attributed to Gaudenzio Ferrari, and an Assumption by Francesco Carpano and Giovanni Domenico Caresana. Medieval frescoes also survive on the dividing wall (the Madonna praying in a mandorla, a Saint Bartholomew), a triptych of 1504 by Giovanni Andrea de Magistris in the chapel of the Madonna della Neve and a Musso lion, used as a holy-water stoup, believed to come from the early Christian Sant’Eufemia. In the high altar, the Musso marble chest bears the inscription of the translation of Fedele’s relics in 1365.
Practical information
- The basilica is in piazza San Fedele, in Como’s old town, a few steps from the Duomo.
- The regional portal in-Lombardia, in an undated page, gives opening from 8.30 to 12 and from 15.30 to 19, except during services; it is best to check with the parish.
- The basilica is very close to the former baptistery of San Giovanni in Atrio, now incorporated into public buildings.
Sources
- Lombardia Beni Culturali, Basilica di S. Fedele (record CO180-00026)
- Lombardia Beni Culturali, Basilica di S. Fedele, complesso (record CO180-00025)
- UPEL Italia, Basilica di San Fedele
- Parrocchia di San Fedele, La Basilica di san Fedele in Como
- in-Lombardia, Church of San Fedele
- Wikipedia, Basilica di San Fedele (Como) entry.
