Brienno’s parish church, dedicated to Saints Nazarius and Celsus, stands in the old village, a few steps from the little harbour and the water of the lake: a single-nave church rebuilt in Baroque forms in the 17th century, also famous for the legend of the tooth that Frederick Barbarossa is said to have left there.
History
A building already stood at the end of the 13th century, when the church appears in the pieve of Nesso; the original chapel, from the 11th century according to Wikipedia, was Romanesque, and its traces remain in the lower part of the bell tower. Between 1615 and 1689 it was deeply restructured, and since then it has had the Baroque look it keeps (Como e il suo Lago).
According to the legend, after the defeat at Legnano in 1176 Frederick Barbarossa took refuge at Brienno: after a night of celebrations he slipped on the alleys and lost a tooth, which his knights picked up and revered as a relic. For centuries, oral tradition says, the tooth stayed in the church, wrapped in a parchment and later shut in a decorated wooden casket (ComoZero). Wikipedia gives the parchment as 14th-century and speaks of a “supposed relic”.
What to see
The interior has a single nave. The sources do not agree on the contents: for Como e il suo Lago there are frescoes by Gian Paolo Recchi, two painted windows of the 16th century and an altarpiece by Andrea de’ Passeri at the high altar; according to Wikipedia the altar painting is by Enea Salmeggia (1618), with the Madonna and Child, Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine of Siena, and comes from the parish house, while de’ Passeri’s polyptych of 1508 is in the sacristy and an old altarpiece by the brothers Giovan Battista and Giovanni Paolo Recchi shows a Madonna with saints. On the churchyard is the war memorial, with an Alpine soldier about to hurl a stone.
In the village there is also the church of San Vittore, or Sant’Anna, on a spur at the entrance to the village, among cypresses: the bell tower dates from the 11th century, the nave from the end of the 16th, and inside are 17th-century Baroque stuccoes (Como e il suo Lago).
Practical information
- We found no up-to-date official source for opening hours: to visit the church it is best to ask the parish of Brienno.
- In the village there is also the Parco Pubblico di Brienno, below the church of the Madonna del Ronco.
Sources
- Como e il suo Lago, Le chiese sul territorio di Brienno
- ComoZero, La leggenda di Federico Barbarossa a Brienno e il dente perduto
- Wikipedia, Chiesa dei Santi Nazaro e Celso (Brienno) entry.