San Bartolomeo, on via Milano in Como, began in 1163 as the church of a hospice of the Crociferi friars near a bridge over the Cosia stream. On its right side is set the ring of the chain that, according to tradition, snapped as the Crucifix passed in 1529.
History
On 14 October 1163 Giovanni Fica, or de’ Ficani, gave the Crociferi a plot of land near one of the Cosia’s bridges so that they could build a hospice and its church. The friars made a complex there with the church, a monastery and the hospital of San Bartolomeo, which joined the Sant’Anna hospital in 1481. The bridge stood where via Milano is now joined by viali Roosevelt and Giulio Cesare, and disappeared when the Cosia was covered over in 1937. The monastery was suppressed in 1653, by a bull of Innocent X signed on 15 October 1652, and became the rectory of nearby San Sebastiano: for Wikipedia this was the area’s parish church from 1604, for UPEL it became so with that suppression; UPEL says it was built in 1566 and little of it remains.
The original church stood further north than the present one, rebuilt several times. It became a parish church only in the late 18th century and between 1779 and 1786 was restructured to a design by Antonio Nolfi; around 1899 the transept, the lantern and the apse were built. The facade, which until the 1920s was a smooth wall, was designed by Giulio Valli from 1925 and completed in 1929, on the miracle’s fourth centenary. The bell tower has had its present form since 1829 according to Wikipedia, and the regional record dates the complex to 1829. Beside the facade the granite portal of the former convent of Santa Chiara, suppressed in 1782, was placed in the 20th century, and the columns of a small cloister behind the portal also survive.
The miracle of the ring
On Maundy Thursday 1529, 25 March, the procession of the confratelli dell’Annunciata, led by the Crucifix, found the road on the bridge barred by two chains, placed by the Spanish governor to halt the French cavalry. The confratelli could pass under the chains and, as the cross bowed, the upper one tore from the wall dragging the stone it was anchored to. A witness said a hundred pairs of oxen could not have pulled out the ring. The Church recognised the miracle on 1 February 1608 (Il Faggio sul Lago); Wikipedia calls it an event considered prodigious and attributes the procession to the Celestine friars of the church of the Annunciata.
The ring, called the “anellone”, is set on a granite plaque at the right corner of the facade: it belonged to the Terraneo brothers, then to Desiderio Cairoli, and in 1848 passed to San Bartolomeo (Corriere di Como). The Holy Week route proposed by Camminacittà retraces the Good Friday procession from the Sanctuary of the Crucifix to this spot: about 900 metres, 12 minutes’ walk.
What to see
The plan is a Latin cross, with a wide hall flanked by chapels, a short transept and a raised presbytery with a deep semicircular choir. The gabled facade has a pronaos with a pediment on Corinthian columns and a stained-glass window high up; the 19th-century bell tower has a copper roof. Inside you see the faux-marble pilasters and tall Corinthian columns, the 20th-century Christ Pantocrator in the apse half-dome and The Sermon on the Mount above an arch of the presbytery.
The high altar is dominated by a marble tabernacle from the Rodari workshop. According to Wikipedia, on the right side are a Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, presumably by Domenico Carpinoni, from the old San Sebastiano, an Assumption attributed to Giulio Cesare Procaccini, from the demolished Santa Chiara, and a canvas of the titular saint’s martyrdom, said to be by Jacopo Palma il Giovane. An altar of the left transept holds a relic of Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, parish priest here from 12 May 1870 to 13 December 1875, later Bishop of Piacenza. Near the south entrance is an altarpiece with the Madonna and Saints Adalbert, Gervasius and Protasius, attributed to the Carpano family and from the church of San Protaso, destroyed in 1883. The old organ does not work.
Practical information
- The church is at via Milano 151, just south of the centre.
- The parish forms a single pastoral community with San Rocco (Borgo Scalabrini site).
- We found no official source for opening hours: it is best to ask the parish.
Sources
- UPEL Italia, Chiesa di San Bartolomeo, Q. San Bartolomeo
- Lombardia Beni Culturali, Chiesa di S. Bartolomeo, complesso
- Il Faggio sul Lago, Miracolo del Crocifisso di Como
- Corriere di Como, L’anellone che si spezzò nel 1529
- Camminacittà, Il cammino della Settimana Santa, tappa 1
- Wikipedia, Chiesa di San Bartolomeo (Como) entry.