Chiesa di Santo Stefano

Menaggio's parish church of Santo Stefano stands where the Roman road once ran, and its very layout betrays that age: the entrance faces the old route rather than the lake. Inside are 1899 frescoes, a Renaissance Madonna copied from the panel now in the Louvre, and stucco work by craftsmen from the Val d'Intelvi.

Why it matters

This is Menaggio's principal church, and its origins reach back so far that the original Roman structures have disappeared entirely. The building is a rare case where the archaeology is legible from the floor plan: the current entrance sits where the back of the earlier church faced, because the antique Strada Regina passed along that side, and the whole orientation was later reversed. The church reflects the artistic life of the western shore of Lake Como, from Renaissance panel painting to the plasterwork traditions of the neighbouring valley.

What to notice

A local artist named Tagliaferri painted the three naves in 1899; the apse vault depicts the martyrdom of Santo Stefano. The presbytery also contains two works by the Menaggio-born painter Castelli.

At the head of the left nave, the altar of the Madonna holds a copy of a Renaissance painting by Bernardino Luini depicting Mary with Jesus and an angel, known as the Madonna di Menaggio; the original is preserved in the Louvre, whose records trace the panel to a commission from the Calvi family for an altar in Menaggio's church before it reached Paris. Copper medallions around the altar show scenes from the Madonna's life. In the middle of the right nave hangs a large painting of San Giorgio by an unknown hand. The altar of Il Sacro Cuore carries 17th-century stuccoes by the maestri intelvesi, the sculptor families of the Val d'Intelvi whose workshops served clients across Europe.

Context and history

The parish of Santo Stefano is documented as being of very ancient foundation, though the Roman-era structures beneath it are lost. The reversal of the church's orientation is the clearest trace of that early history: the Antica Strada Regina, the Roman road that ran along the western shore of the Lario, passed behind the present building, and the medieval entrance opened towards it. The 19th century brought the decorative campaign of 1899, which gave the interior its current pictorial unity. The connection to Bernardino Luini, one of Leonardo's closest followers, anchors the church in the wider story of Lombard Renaissance painting; the fact that the original panel travelled to the Louvre says much about how prized the Madonna di Menaggio became.