Collegiata dei Santi Gervasio e Protasio

The Collegiate Church of Saints Gervasio and Protasio stands on Piazza Campello in Sondrio. Dedicated to the city's patron saints, it combines an eighteenth-century baroque nave with a neoclassical presbytery and facade.

Why it matters

The church preserves an important concentration of Valtellinese religious art. Pietro Ligari contributed both to its architecture and to its paintings, bringing the work of a significant local artist into the city's principal sacred building.

What to notice

Ligari's nave and six lateral altars establish the baroque character of the interior. Paintings and frescoes by Ligari, Antonio Caimi and Giovanni Gavazzeni show different phases of the region's artistic life. The contrast with the more restrained neoclassical presbytery and facade makes the sequence of alterations apparent.

Context and history

The present church occupies the site of an earlier place of worship. Successive rebuilding, rather than one unified campaign, produced its varied appearance. Ligari designed the nave during the eighteenth century; later interventions changed the surrounding architectural language while preserving the church's role within Sondrio's civic and religious centre.