The Church of Santa Maria Maddalena is a Romanesque oratory on the lakefront of Ossuccio, in the comune of Tremezzina. It is part of the complex of the medieval Hospitalis di Stabio, directly on the Greenway route.
History
The Hospitalis di Santa Maria Maddalena di Stabio is documented from 1169 and worked as a xenodochium, that is a place of hospitality and care for pilgrims and the poor. The Giovio family held the right of patronage over it for about five centuries, formalised by a papal bull in 1496.
The church and the bell tower
The church is datable between the 11th and the 13th century, depending on the source. It has a single nave and a semicircular apse facing east, is built of exposed Moltrasio stone, and is decorated on the outside with blind arcading along all sides. The bell tower was raised at the end of the 14th century with a Gothic spire; the belfry has late-Gothic decoration with an Oriental character, with pinnacles and anthropomorphic figures, and its roof was rebuilt in 1900. In the 1930s the façade was rebuilt on the model of the oratory of Spurano and a new timber-beam roof was laid.
What to see
- At the entrance, a fresco of the Madonna among the faithful and saints.
- Along the walls, a series of frescoes dedicated to Santa Maria Maddalena.
- The scagliola altarpiece from the Val d’Intelvi, made by Pietro Solari (1722), with the effigies of the Giovio family.
- In the semi-dome of the apse, fragmentary signs of the zodiac.
Along the Greenway
The church is on the lakefront of Ossuccio, in the comune of Tremezzina, directly on the route of the Greenway del Lago di Como. Nearby, towards the lake, the Isola Comacina is visible; above the village stands the Sacro Monte di Ossuccio.