Tremezzo’s parish church, dedicated to Saint Lawrence, faces the lake from the Regina state road: it has an octagonal plan, neo-Romanesque and neo-Gothic forms and a very long history, because the building site begun in 1775 stood idle for almost a century and finished only in 1894.
History
Tremezzo’s parish dates from 1637 (Wikipedia). The building of the new church started in 1775-1776 and stopped after a couple of years, with the death of the main financiers, who lived outside the village. The site resumed after almost a century: the old parish church, with its side altars and works, was demolished in 1892 and the building was completed in 1894. A tourist site writes that the church was built “around the 17th century” and completed in 1892; the Region’s entry dates it between the 18th and 19th centuries.
What to see
The layout is octagonal, centrally planned, with a hipped roof of Marseilles tiles. The walls, in roughly squared blocks of Moltrasio stone, are plastered outside and almost always inside too. The square bell tower, beside the facade, has an internal well staircase set into the masonry, with brick steps and stone slabs, and is decorated with floral and geometric friezes (Lombardia Beni Culturali, Paesi Online). From the lake the church can be seen even arriving by boat, and the churchyard is wide; the tall double and single windows are neo-Romanesque and neo-Gothic.
The interior, ornamented with pilasters, is frescoed by Tagliaferri, between 1906 and 1910 according to a travel site; the Region writes Luigi Tagliaferri, Paesi Online Pietro Tagliaferri. Two paintings from the demolished church were reused, one with the Madonna, the Child and Saint Anthony of Padua, the other with Saint Anthony the Abbot between Saint Roch and Saint Sebastian, and a Baroque statue of the Madonna of the Rosary, placed in a neo-Gothic altar by Eliseo Fumagalli of Delebio (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 Tremezzo.
Sources
- Lombardia Beni Culturali, Chiesa di S. Lorenzo - complesso, Tremezzina
- Paesi Online, Chiesa di San Lorenzo a Tremezzo
- Wikipedia, Chiesa di San Lorenzo (Tremezzina) entry.