Sant’Orsola stands just outside Como’s southern walls, between via Tommaso Grossi and viale Lecco: it is an early 17th-century church built for the nuns of the monastery next door, with a barrel vault frescoed in 1614, an altarpiece by Moncalvo and a 15th-century fresco rescued from the earlier building.
History
The medieval church, smaller and with its apse to the east, had been consecrated in 1489 according to a notarial deed cited by the art historian Alberto Rovi, author of the chapter on Sant’Orsola in the territorial government plan report of the Comune di Como. The monastery was Umiliate: Wikipedia says it was founded in 1434, while a pastoral visit of 1632 describes the nuns in the white habit of the Umiliati. On 5 October 1609 the prioress, Sister Geronima Perlasca, signed a deed to finance the works under way, and the vault bears the date 1614: the new church was therefore built in the first and second decades of the 17th century, following the rules the Council of Trent had imposed on women’s monasteries. Wikipedia gives the consecration as 1639; Rovi documents the high altar already consecrated in 1634.
The new building faces the city, on a north-south axis, while the old church was not entirely demolished and keeps fresco remains, but no apse. Enclosure required two spaces: the “outer church” for the faithful, which is the one seen today, and the “inner church” behind the presbytery, where the nuns heard Mass through a grille, now replaced by the parish priest’s rooms. The present curved apse dates from 1910. According to Wikipedia, Sant’Orsola became a parish church in 1906 and a prepositural church in 1908.
The exterior is the one remade in the 20th century: brick cladding, cornice and pediment in serizzo stone of 1938 to a design by Professor Galfetti, reworked by the engineer Ferruccio Castelli (Rovi; Wikipedia writes 1939). The portal is instead 17th-century, in serizzo, made shortly before 1643 by the stonecutter Pietro Pelino of Viconago. The bell tower, a tower in place of the earlier bell-gable, is 19th-century for Wikipedia, which says it was designed by the painter Francesco Capiaghi, and 20th-century for UPEL.
What to see
The interior is a single nave with five arches on each side, carried by composite pilasters and a stucco frieze with festoons. The vault, frescoed in 1614, is attributed to the Lugano painter Giovanni Domenico Caresana: at the centre the Trinity, with the Father and the Son side by side and the dove of the Spirit, and around them groups of angels. At the base of the vault angels hold scrolls with Latin inscriptions on the Trinity, while those near the presbytery carry the attributes of the titular saint: crown, palm and arrows. The restorations of the 1980s removed the additions of the painter Mario Albertella, who however left in the apse half-dome the Glory of Saint Ursula (20th century).
The high altar, framed by a polychrome marble altarpiece frame, has at its centre the painting of the martyrdom of Saint Ursula by Guglielmo Caccia, known as Moncalvo. Under the canvas remains the grille recalling the passage between the nuns’ church and that of the faithful. During the Second World War the painting was sheltered in a refuge at the Acquafredda abbey (Wikipedia). Of the 17th-century wooden choir the stalls have been partly recovered: heads of nuns alternate with those of girls, recalling the boarding school in which the nuns taught girls from noble families.
In the chapel of the Virgin a block of wall detached from the old church carries the fresco by Andrea De Passeri, datable to 1496 for Rovi (between 1494 and 1497 for Wikipedia and UPEL): the Madonna offers a carnation to the Child, who holds a goldfinch, with Saint John beside them. The chapel’s 17th-century paintings and stuccoes were funded by the Torchio family; Wikipedia attributes the Marian paintings to Antonio Maria Crespi Castoldi, of 1630. The other chapel, of Saint Francis, bears the arms of the Tridi family. Above the entrance door hangs a 16th-17th-century Crucifix with real hair and beard.
Practical information
- The church is in the San Martino quarter, just outside the walls, and gives directly onto the street, with no forecourt.
- We found no official source for opening hours: it is best to ask the parish.