LarioLago di Como

What to See · Churches

Church of Santa Maria del Tiglio

Alto Lario

Gravedona ed uniti →

Santa Maria del Tiglio, in piazza XI Febbraio in Gravedona ed Uniti, is a Romanesque former baptismal church of the 12th century: it has a square plan with three apses and a bell tower set into the centre of the facade, an unusual layout. It stands beside the pieve of San Vincenzo and in place of an early Christian baptistery.

History

The area was sacred already in Roman times: three altars, a burial and carved fragments have been found there. The first altar is still to the right of the entrance, the second is walled into the apse area and the third ended up in Cremona. The excavations of 1953 found under the 17th-century floor the remains of a square building with an apse on each side and an octagonal immersion baptismal tub, with three steps on the west side and a lead drain pipe. The wide use of tessellated mosaic dates this first baptistery, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, to the end of the 5th century. The Annals of Fulda recall it in 823, for a miracle: a fresco of the Adoration of the Magi is said to have shone with its own light for two days and two nights.

It is not known when and why the early Christian building was replaced by the Romanesque one, which repeats its plan on a larger scale. A document of 1154 already names the church of Santa Maria, and architectural analysis leads to the second half of the 12th century. The name “del Tiglio” (of the lime tree) is linked to a tree that grew on the bell tower, but the pastoral community considers this tradition recent. Inside, after the Council of Trent, there was deep intervention: the floor was raised, the immersion tub was replaced by a higher font in Arzo marble, and Baroque altars, stuccoes and frescoes appeared in the apses. Some Romanesque parts can now be read only outside. The “stylistic” recovery of 1952-53 brought to light the old tub, a 5th-century mosaic and many fresco fragments. Legend ties the church to Queen Theodelinda, so that it is also called the church of Queen Theodelinda.

What to see

The church has a square plan, with the eastern apse deeper and two smaller apses at the sides. The exterior is of white Musso marble and black Olcio stone, in horizontal bands, with arches under the eaves. The bell tower, with a square base and an octagonal upper part added in the late 16th century in Romanesque forms, leans against the centre of the facade and the portal opens at its base. Among the recovered reliefs set into the facade are a centaur with a bow, a stag struck by an arrow, a star with crosses, a Gordian knot, a serpent and a late Roman protome, perhaps from a funerary stele; two round reliefs are called “Theodelinda’s breasts”.

Inside, three niches dug into the central apse have small columns with different capitals, and a gallery runs above the apses, reached by stairs in the thickness of the west wall: the regional record does not clarify its function and thinks it unlikely to have been a matroneum. On the inner facade part of the Last Judgement survives, attributed to Paolo Pietro da Menaggio, of the mid-14th century, with Christ the judge and, below, a heavenly Jerusalem full of bell towers. On the north side is a large Romanesque wooden Crucifix, of the Rhenish school, in poplar and alder wood, from San Vincenzo and restored between 1997 and 2000: the regional record dates it to within the mid-12th century, other sources place it in the first or second half of the century. In the presbytery and apses fresco fragments of the 15th and 16th centuries remain: the stories of Saint John the Baptist, a Saint Gotthard, a Madonna enthroned between Saint Nicholas and a deacon saint, a procession and an Adoration of the Magi. Other fragments of the second half of the 14th century show Saint Anne, Saint Susanna, Saint Julian, Saint Lucius and a Saint Christopher. On the floor, in one corner, is a fragment of the 5th-century mosaic with white, black and red tesserae.

Practical information

  • The church is in piazza XI Febbraio, in Gravedona ed Uniti, next to San Vincenzo.
  • In summer 2026 the San Francesco Spinelli Pastoral Community gave for Santa Maria del Tiglio, Santi Gusmeo e Matteo and Santa Maria delle Grazie opening every day from 8 to 18.30, until 14 September (Settimanale della Diocesi, 16/6/2026). As of 5 October 2026 we have not found the autumn and winter hours on an official source (neither the Pastoral Community’s page nor the in-Lombardia page gives them) and other sites give different times: to know whether the church is open you can phone the Gravedona parish on 0344 85261, the number given on the Pastoral Community’s site.
  • In the same town: San Vincenzo, Santi Gusmeo e Matteo and Santa Maria delle Grazie.

Sources

On the map

← Back to What to See