The collegiate church of Santo Stefano is the archpriestly church of Dongo, in an isolated position north of the town, near the lakeshore. The building is the 18th-century reconstruction (1716-1735) of the old pieve church.
History
A parchment of 1119 mentions in Dongo a place of worship with burials around it, and the regional record sees in it the first pieve church of Santo Stefano; the oldest remains found so far, according to Dongo’s tourist-trail sheet, are however Gothic, not earlier than the 14th century. A stone of 1315 records an enlargement, after which the church had three naves with as many apses. In 1593 Bishop Ninguarda’s pastoral visit found the main apse frescoed and fitted with fine altarpieces; in the 17th century Gian Giacomo Barbello painted the decoration of the right apse and, in 1628, a canvas of the Immaculate Conception.
Because the church stands right by the lake and was exposed to floods, in 1716 the archpriest Giuseppe Stampa decided to demolish it and rebuild it with a higher floor: the works lasted some twenty years, and the date 1735 is on the facade. The two minor apses were kept and absorbed into the sacristy and the chapel of the Confraternities; the new church was consecrated on 14 June 1804. In 1884 the bell tower was raised, but the work was later removed for signs of subsidence; two projects to complete the facade, of 1886 and 1930, were not carried out. The consolidation of the foundations (1923-1929) uncovered a floor about three metres below the present one, perhaps of the first church. The interior frescoes have been restored since 1985, and the facades in 1991.
The diocesan archives describe the parish as archpresbyteral and collegiate, a vicariate seat from the 17th century: in 1578, at Bishop Bonomi’s visit, it counted 700 parishioners; in 1773 the chapter had nine canonries; the jurisdiction also covered Mosenzonico, Melia and Campiedi. It was a vicariate seat until 1968. Bishop Alessandro Macchi, who ran the diocese from 1930 to 1947, called it his cathedral.
What to see
The facade is severe: two orders of pilaster strips separated by a stone cornice, a triangular pediment, the central portal with two smaller doors, a large rectangular window. The bell tower, completed in the 18th century, rises on the right side; the apse, facing the lake, has an unusual terminal cornice, and beside it you can make out the outline of a worn sundial.
The interior has a vaulted nave with side chapels, largely decorated in the 18th century. Along the walls ten niches hold stucco statues by the sculptor Stefano Salterio of Laglio: the patron of the church and the protector saints of the parishes of the pieve. In the first chapel on the right, dedicated to Saint Peter, the frescoes are by Carlo Scotti of Laino (1771 according to the regional record, 1782 according to the tourist sheet), with 19th-century retouching by Luigi Tagliaferri; on the altar a 17th-century canvas of the handing over of the keys is ascribed to Fra Gerolamo Cotica of Premana. The second, of the Sorrowful Virgin, was frescoed in 1743 by Giulio Quaglio, as an inscription attests, on the theme of the Virgin’s sorrows; the altar has four twisted columns in Varenna marble.
In the presbytery, dominated by the polychrome marble altar, Carlo Scotti painted the story of Saint Stephen, with the Dispute, the Stoning and the Glory, and in the apse a false architecture with the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb. At the sides open the sacristy, which absorbs the 14th-century apse and keeps the 17th-century frescoes attributed to Barbello (stories of the two Johns, Saint George, Saint Ambrose and Saint Defendente), and the chapel of the Confraternities. On the left side are the neoclassical chapel of the Crucifix, painted in 1807 by Filippo Bellati, the baptistery with a Renaissance font and the chapel of Santa Marta, with frescoes attributed to Giovanni Antonio Torricelli, around 1756 for the regional record, about 1780 for the tourist sheet.
Practical information
- The church is on viale Mons. P. Bellesini, north of the centre of Dongo, not far from the lake.
- According to Dongo’s tourist-trail sheet, prepared by the Cooperativa Imago, it is usually closed; Mass times are on the parish website, and the parish answers on 0344 81233. At the main entrance there is a low step with a threshold, and two steps at the side doors.
- In the same comune see also the church of Santa Maria in Martinico and the shrine of the Madonna delle Lacrime.
