The church of San Rocco gives its name to the hamlet around it, just above the station of Abbadia Lariana. Its inhabitants built it as a vow after the cholera epidemic of 1836 and saw it finished and blessed only twenty years later. Inside is an altarpiece dated 1616, older than the building itself.
History
The hamlet took the place of an older settlement, Germuzano, which the parish finds mentioned in 1252 and 1496. The new name comes from the church, and the church comes from an epidemic: the inhabitants who survived the cholera of 1836 promised a place of worship to Saint Roch, the saint invoked against contagion, on land donated by Margherita Pensa Pozzi.
The money for the works came partly from alms, bequests and offerings from devotees, and ran out quickly. The building was completed only after a second cholera epidemic, in 1855, and blessed in 1856. Sources disagree on one date: the parish and the municipal tourism site speak of the vow of 1836 and the blessing of 1856, while Wikipedia’s article on Abbadia Lariana gives 1839 for the neoclassical church. This page follows the first two, which cover the history of the building in full.
In 1898 the pastoral visit of Bishop Valfré di Bonzo counted San Rocco among the churches within the parish of San Lorenzo, together with San Martino, San Bartolomeo and others, according to the Lombardia Beni Culturali record on the parish.
What to see
The interior has a single nave, of «decent workmanship» according to the parish. The altar is in white and black marble and the statue of the titular saint is made of wood. The paintings are the most interesting part: the largest shows Saint Charles with Saint Peter Martyr and Saint Alexis and bears the Arrigoni coat of arms, with a Latin inscription dated 1616 in which a Bonacurio Arrigoni says he had it made and donated it to a chapel dedicated to those three saints. The painting predates the present church by two centuries; the sources consulted do not say where it was before.
On the route
Anyone following the description of the Anello a Lago published in 2012 by the Comune, the CAI of Mandello and the Pro Loco starts from the station or the landing stage, passes the railway underpass in via Val Zerbo and climbs via della Quadra, via Stoppani and via San Rocco. At the church of San Rocco the route bends right and climbs via per Robbianico to a votive shrine where the footpaths divide. The full route is in the Anello a Lago itinerary.
Practical information
- It stands in the small square of the San Rocco hamlet, in via Alessandro Manzoni according to OpenStreetMap.
- We have not found opening hours on an official source: the parish of Abbadia Lariana publishes Mass times and information on its churches on its website.
- Nearby: the former church of San Bartolomeo and the church of San Lorenzo on the lakefront.
Sources
- Parrocchia di Abbadia Lariana, Chiesa di San Rocco, frazione San Rocco
- Abbadia Lariana Turismo, Frazione San Rocco
- Lombardia Beni Culturali, Parrocchia di San Lorenzo, 1495 - [1989]
- Pro Loco Lario Orientale, Abbadia Lariana: Anello a Lago (3 September 2012)
- Wikipedia, article on Abbadia Lariana.
- OpenStreetMap, for the position of the church.
