The church of Saints Bartholomew and Nicholas, the parish church of Domaso, stands at the eastern edge of the old centre: documents record it from 1247, but its look is that of a Baroque rebuilding that almost entirely wiped out the Romanesque building, and inside it keeps cycles of frescoes and canvases of the 17th and 18th centuries.
History
The church is documented from 1247 and appears in 13th-century texts about the parish’s attempt to make itself independent of the pieve of Gravedona. An old description, the pastoral visit of 1593, speaks of an external portico with serizzo columns, a gallery above the entrance, very old frescoes in the apse and three chapels, dedicated to Saint Martha, Saint Anthony and Saint Nicholas. In 1506 the octagonal bell chamber was added to the bell tower. From 1551 a radical renovation began, with the enlargement of the chapels and the building of the choir; in the 17th century the decorations were carried out, starting from the third chapel on the left, and the building was transformed between 1724 and 1730 (Lombardia Beni Culturali). Wikipedia recalls that in 1637 it became a provostship and that only after the Second World War was it raised to archpriest church.
What to see
The facade has two orders, marked by pilasters, with a portal, a balustraded window and a mixtilinear pediment in Baroque taste. On the right side a side portal is topped by a Renaissance Pietà, close to the works of the Rodari brothers, and on the same side rises the bell tower, with Romanesque elements. On the left side is the 18th-century Chapel of the Good Death, frescoed with a Deposition. With a single nave and side chapels, the interior is covered by an 18th-century decoration of perspective views and floral ornament by Felice Biella.
The first chapel on the right, of the Rosary, gives access to a small room with the remains of a 15th-century fresco, the Trinity and Saint Peter Martyr, which emerged from the plaster. The second, of Saints Francis and Anthony, has stuccoes by the Ticino artist Agostino Silva and frescoes by Pietro Bianchi. The third, of the Virgin, is the one decorated at the order of Count Luigi Panizza, who governed the Forte di Fuentes for Spain and was buried here in 1639: the frescoes with the Life of the Virgin and the Mysteries of the Rosary are attributed to Domenico Caresana, and above the altar is a late-Gothic Madonna of the Lily. On the left side the third chapel, of Saints Peter and Paul, has the Stories of the two saints frescoed by Caresana in 1605 and a canvas by Giulio Cesare Procaccini. The presbytery has two frescoes of 1758 by the Valtellina painter Cesare Ligari, with episodes tied to the patron saints, the death of Bartholomew and a miracle of Nicholas of Bari; another source gives them to Pietro Ligari (1686-1752). The gilded silver processional cross is by the Como goldsmith Giovan Pietro Lierni (1533), according to Como e il suo Lago and Wikipedia.
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 Domaso.
Sources
- Lombardia Beni Culturali, Chiesa di S. Bartolomeo - complesso, Domaso
- Como e il suo Lago, La chiesa di San Bartolomeo a Domaso
- Wikipedia, Chiesa di San Bartolomeo (Domaso) entry.