The church of San Vincenzo stands beside the Regina state road, near the cemetery and the stream of the same name, and is the parish church of Gera Lario: a 15th-century building on a Romanesque church, itself built on a site inhabited since Roman times, with a 2nd-century mosaic and one of the most complete fresco cycles of the Upper Lario.
History
The restoration dig of 1964-1965 brought to light a stretch of 2nd-century mosaic floor, and a Roman stele with an inscription, of the 3rd-4th century, is set into the portal: on this spot stood a Roman-era building, according to tradition a little temple of Jupiter with a villa (Wikipedia). Later an oratory rose there: a piece of the altar and walls of the 5th-6th century, early Christian, and of the 8th, early medieval, survive. In the 12th century the Romanesque church of San Vincenzo was built, which appears in the records from 1176 and of which the apse and altar survive, in the baptistery, the south wall, incorporated in the facade, and some blocks with geometric motifs reused in the portal. From the 15th century a radical transformation changed the orientation and gave the church its present form, with a porch on sandstone columns, the gabled facade and, in the 17th century, the oratory of the Rosary confraternity (Lombardia Beni Culturali).
What to see
The interior has a single nave, divided by transverse arches into bays with the side altars (Como e il suo Lago speaks of three arches), with an exposed-beam roof. The walls are covered in paintings, which culminate in the presbytery, with a triumphal arch that tells of the Virgin and Saint Vincent in 16th-century paintings, finished in the 19th century by Luigi Tagliaferri, who also painted the Glory of Saint Vincent. The presbytery cycle is of 1546: the Evangelists on the vault, the Doctors of the Church and scenes from the life of Saint Vincent on the walls, Vincent and Stephen with God the Father at the back; it was commissioned by the guild of Gera boatmen, and the author is uncertain, with attributions to the workshops of Sigismondo de Magistris and of Ambrogio Arcimboldi. On the altar stands a polyptych of 1547: the Annunciation, the Virgin enthroned with the Child and the Crucifixion, with saints and Doctors of the Church.
Other works are a wooden altarpiece of Saint Lawrence, of the 16th-17th century, a wooden group of the Crucifix with the Pious Women of the 17th century, a fresco of Saint Peter Martyr and the Madonna enthroned with the Child. In the baptistery, made in the old apse, you see the remains of early Christian and early medieval oratories and the Roman mosaic. In the Second World War the polyptych was taken down and put in safekeeping in Rome (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 Gera Lario.
- The San Vincenzo beach, in via San Vincenzo, is one of those listed by North Lake Como at Gera Lario: see the Spiaggia di Gera Lario.
Sources
- Lombardia Beni Culturali, Chiesa di S. Vincenzo - complesso, Gera Lario
- Como e il suo Lago, Le chiese sul territorio di Gera Lario
- Wikipedia, Chiesa di San Vincenzo (Gera Lario) entry.