What to See · Churches

Como Cathedral (Duomo)

Ramo di Como

Como Cathedral, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta, is a Gothic cathedral with a Renaissance choir: it was begun in 1396 and finished, after more than three centuries, with Filippo Juvarra’s dome. The Musso-marble facade, largely the work of the Rodari workshop, has the statues of Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger either side of the portal. Since February 2025 tourist visits have been paid, while entry for prayer is free.

History

The cathedral stands in place of Santa Maria Maggiore, which at the start of the 11th century was already the bishop’s seat. The rebuilding was wanted by the Visconti, who arrived in Como in 1335. The foundation is fixed at 1396 by a plaque set outside the main apse, but the regional record believes the building site really started in the first twenty years of the 15th century. As with Milan Cathedral, who conceived the Gothic fabric is unknown: the first documented name is Lorenzo degli Spazzi, an architect from the Valle Intelvi who came from Milan for consultations. Pietro da Breggia raised the piers and covered the vaults, while the facade was started around 1460 by Florio da Bontà; the first phase, with the naves and facade, closed in 1486.

In 1484 the Ticino sculptor Tommaso Rodari was called in for the facade statues; in 1487 he became engineer of the works and worked until his death in 1526, with his brothers Giacomo and Donato and the workshop. For the choir area a new model in Renaissance forms was approved in 1510 with the opinion of Antonio Amadeo and built with many interruptions in the 16th century, under the direction of Giovanni Antonio Piotti; Cristoforo Solari, called il Gobbo, introduced the classical style there. In the 17th century the two side apses were built, one by Francesco Maria Richino between 1627 and 1633, the other by Carlo Buzzi in 1669. For the dome there were many projects, among them one by Carlo Fontana in 1668; the final version is by Filippo Juvarra, who worked on it from 1730. The end of the works is dated 1738 by the regional record, 1740 by Wikipedia and 1744 by the cathedral’s site. Because of water infiltration the dome had a covering shell between 1769 and 1773, removed in 1935.

The facade

The facade, taller than the church behind it, is divided into three fields by buttresses with pinnacles that anticipate the three naves, with a rose window flanked by four tall lancet windows. The Comune dates it between 1455 and 1486. The sculptures are almost all by the Rodari, and the iconographic programme is read from bottom to top: in the lower part are the references to the classical world, like the two statues of the Plinys in the aedicules either side of the main portal; in the lunettes of the portals, scenes from the Infancy of Jesus; above the main door, in pointed niches, the Virgin between the Baptist, Abundius, Proto and Hyacinth; under the rose window a youth in a roundel represents the Holy Spirit.

On the north side, towards the bishop’s palace and the Broletto, opens the Porta della Rana (Frog Door), worked around 1505 by Tommaso and Giacomo Rodari, with plant and animal motifs among which, according to legend, a frog that climbed the door during a flood of the lake and turned to stone. The south door, of 1491-1509, is also by Tommaso Rodari and has more static figures.

The interior

Three Gothic naves, with twelve clustered piers with leafy capitals, carry ribbed cross vaults, and at the end the Renaissance choir creates a termination of three equal apses under the dome, which the regional record compares to the tribune of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. The cathedral keeps Renaissance altars in carved stone, three of them by Tommaso Rodari, and those of Sant’Abbondio and the Crucifix by the carver Giovan Angelo del Maino; from the earlier church come the Romanesque lions adapted as holy-water stoups and a Gothic altar of 1317 with marble reliefs. The apse half-domes have stuccoes with the Assumption by Francesco Silva and the Resurrection by Agostino Silva, the pendentives of the dome the Evangelists by Gaspare Mola; in the central apse and at the altar of Saint Joseph are neoclassical sculptures by Pompeo Marchesi. Among the painters are Bernardino Luini and Gaudenzio Ferrari in the 16th century and Morazzone in the 17th, and on the walls 16th- and 17th-century tapestries. The organs are today a set of 69 stops and 6,515 pipes.

Visiting

The Duomo is at via Maestri Comacini 6, in the limited-traffic zone. For prayer it opens on weekdays from 7.30 to 19; on Sundays and solemnities it stays open until the last celebration, around 20. Tourist visits are as a rule Monday to Friday from 10.30 to 17.30, Saturday from 10.45 to 16.30, Sundays and holidays from 11 to 11.45 and from 13 to 16.30: these are the 2026 hours published by the cathedral, while a Comune page updated in April 2025 gave visits as suspended on Sundays.

Since 3 February 2025, under a trial agreement signed by the Comune with the Ente Chiesa Cattedrale, the tourist visitor can choose. With the integrated ticket, which is also valid for the civic museums, you enter the transept, the wooden choir, the sacristies and, with a form to fill in, the upper walkways; at the start of the scheme it cost from 10 to 20 euros depending on the number of museums (EspansioneTv). Without a ticket there is a dedicated route: from the Porta delle Virtù along the right nave, under the organ galleries, to the exit by the Porta della Rana. Worshippers enter freely, and photographs for personal use are allowed except during Mass. Tickets are bought online, at the Broletto Infopoint on via Pretorio (every day 10-13 and 14-17), at the Tempio Voltiano and at the Pinacoteca. The diocese explains the ticket by the lack of state grants and by restoration needs, and in 2024 more than 300,000 tourist entries were counted.

The 2026 prices are on the cathedral’s site and it is best to check hours and routes there before going. Next to the Duomo is the basilica of San Giacomo, under restoration.

Sources

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