The church of Santa Maria stands in Martinico, the oldest part of Dongo, in a slightly raised position above the square. It is a Romanesque building with a single nave and a semicircular apse, radically restored in the early 20th century to bring back its original forms, and it keeps frescoes from the 14th to the 17th century.
History
There is no full agreement on its age. The regional record notes that a church of Santa Maria is documented from the 12th century by sale-deed parchments in the parish archive; Dongo’s tourist-trail sheet cites as the oldest document a deed of 1299 in the State Archives of Milan but, from similarities with San Nicolò at Piona, places the church no later than the start of the 12th century; Como e il suo Lago speaks of an origin debated between the 11th and 12th centuries. In 1460 the canon Giovanni Battista Cappelli, of the collegiate church of Santo Stefano, had a chapel added, as the inscription on a fresco later detached attests; in 1593 Bishop Ninguarda described a single-nave church with an altarpiece on the high altar and a chapel with a painted vault.
In the 17th century the building took on Baroque forms: new paintings in the apse, an altar with a balustrade dated 1687 in the side chapel, perhaps vaults in the nave that ruined the frescoes on the walls. A second chapel (1791) followed and, in 1865, other volumes were built against the walls. The return to the Romanesque began in 1902, on the initiative of the archpriest Angelinetti, but stopped for lack of money; with the archpriest Prospero Bellesini it restarted in 1905, directed by the architect Federico Frigerio. The school leaning on the church, the bell tower on the facade, the chapel of San Rocco, the sacristy, the choir and the Baroque vaults were demolished, and the apse was rebuilt. In 1909 the restorer Annoni detached the paintings of the apse and those of the 15th-century chapel; in 1912, with the engineer Aldo Rumi, bell tower and sacristy were rebuilt. In 1974 the presbytery was rearranged, with the removal of the Baroque altar and pulpit.
What to see
The facade is gabled and very simple: the portal with its architrave decorated by a carved cross, two slits, a cross window above. The side facing the square is the finest: masonry of well-squared blocks, an oculus, three single-light windows, two portals. The monumental one, near the apse, has a round arch and small columns with carved bases and capitals, and two little human masks on the brackets of the architrave; at the corner a stone lion juts out. Above runs a sawtooth cornice with two-colour hanging arches, whose corbels are carved with human and animal figures. The square bell tower, rebuilt in 1912, has two-light windows in the belfry.
Inside, the walls are unplastered and the ceiling is of wood. The oldest fragments are on the right side: a Madonna of Mercy of about 1310-1315, perhaps among the first painted in Lombardy, with angels holding up the mantle. Higher up, and on the inner facade, there remain figures of saints of the late 14th century, among them an enthroned Saint Peter and a Saint Anthony Abbot, as well as a Last Supper. On the presbytery arch, 15th-century fragments with Saints Jerome and Gregory and a figure of a saint or prophet. The detached frescoes of the apse, three scenes from Christ’s childhood (Nativity, Presentation, Jesus among the doctors), are attributed to the Fiammenghino, who according to the tourist sheet completed the Rosary cycle around 1623. In the central window of the apse there is a small 16th-century stained-glass window with the Virgin, and beside the altar a wooden statue of the Assumption of 1690. A door on the right leads up to the Baroque chapel, with an altar with twisted columns and a scagliola frontal.
Practical information
- The church is in Martinico, above the road, on piazzetta Anna Vertua Gentile. You climb to the churchyard by seven plus three stone steps, and the entrance is by the side door near the facade, with a small threshold.
- According to Dongo’s tourist-trail sheet, prepared by the Cooperativa Imago, the church is usually open; Mass times are on the parish website (tel. 0344 81233). We found no other hours from an official source.
- In the same comune there is also the collegiate church of Santo Stefano.
Sources
- Lombardia Beni Culturali, Chiesa di S. Maria in Martinico, complesso (record CO250-00457)
- Lombardia Beni Culturali, Chiesa di S. Maria in Martinico (record CO250-00458)
- camminacitta, Dongo points of interest: Church of S. Maria in Martìnico
- Como e il suo Lago, Chiesa di Santa Maria Martinico a Dongo
- Wikipedia, Chiesa di Santa Maria (Dongo) entry.
