Basilica di Sant'Abbondio

Beyond Como's walls, the Basilica di Sant'Abbondio stands along the old Via Regina, where Roman cemeteries and early churches once lined the road. Rebuilt in Romanesque form and consecrated by Pope Urban II in 1095, it keeps the tomb of Como's patron bishop and some of the region's most affecting medieval wall painting.

Why it matters

Sant'Abbondio is regarded as a leading example of Comacine Romanesque. The encyclopaedic record counts it as the third church founded in Como, grown from a fifth-century burial-ground basilica into the monastic church consecrated in 1095. Its separation from the city centre — intentional, on a road of the dead — gives it a quiet that the central churches cannot match.

What to notice

The basilica's long, low body and detached position make its Romanesque massing legible. Its medieval fresco cycle includes an early-fourteenth-century apse painting, conventionally attributed to the Master of Sant'Abbondio. The remains of Sant'Abbondio, fifth-century bishop of Como and the city's patron, lie beneath the church. The site succeeds a paleo-Christian Basilica Apostolorum; the adjoining eleventh-century church of Saints Cosmas and Damian preserves pillars of that earlier building. The neighbouring monastery cloister, acquired and restored by the Comune after 1968, serves the University of Insubria.

Context and history

The via Regina had been a burial road since Roman times, and by the fifth century it carried the church of Santi Cosma e Damiano and the Basilica Apostolorum. In the ninth century the church was dedicated to Abundius, the fifth-century bishop buried there some four centuries earlier. In 1010 Bishop Alberico established a Benedictine community, whose monks demolished the early-Christian structure and rebuilt the church in Romanesque form; Pope Urban II consecrated it in 1095. Further major works followed over the next two centuries.

After the bishop's seminary moved, the Comune purchased the neighbouring cloister in 1968, restored it, and converted it for the University of Insubria, which occupies the monastic complex today. The basilica remains a place of worship.