Chiesa di Sant'Elisabetta a Montepiatto

High above Torno, in the hamlet of Montepiatto, the church of Sant'Elisabetta overlooks Lake Como's first basin. A recent parish restoration renewed the historic fabric of this living place of worship.

Why it matters

Montepiatto's church is the destination's mountain counterpart to the two lakeside churches of Torno, and its story spans monastic beginnings, a celebrated saint, fire, and a recent, carefully documented conservation campaign. The surrounding landscape includes chestnut woods, ancient grave markers, the balanced boulder of the Pietra Pendula and the grassy terrace around the church.

What to notice

The church sits at the highest point of the hamlet, its facade looking out over the lake through the trees; from the water it is the pale building visible among the chestnut woods above Torno. The original dedication connects it to the mystery of the Visitation — Mary's visit to her cousin Saint Elizabeth — an unusual and telling choice. Beside the church survives the building of the old convent, and inside a fragment of a scagliola altar frontal in the Intelvese technique recalls the care once lavished on this remote sanctuary.

The plateau is part of the historic landscape. Early medieval massi avelli, grave slabs hollowed from single stones, are found there; the Pietra Pendula is a glacial erratic balanced on a narrower pedestal in a mushroom silhouette. Local legend associates another rock with Saint Charles Borromeo.

Context and history

The church's origins are old but undocumented; scholars generally assign its foundation to the medieval period, noting its affinity with the church of San Giovanni Battista in Torno itself. Documented life begins in 1507, when the tornaschi — the men of Torno — established a convent here, entrusted to nuns from the Sacro Monte of Varese. The community was short lived: in 1598 Saint Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, united the few remaining sisters with their mother house in Varese. After that, hermits and solitaries kept a religious presence on the plateau until the mid-eighteenth century. Local tradition also preserves a fantastical tale of the saint flying from this rock to the Sacro Monte with nuns he had rescued from plague.

The modern chapter is one of loss and renewal: church and convent burned in March 1975 and were rebuilt by the community with the support of the Pro Loco of Torno. Between June and October 2023, the parish of Santa Tecla carried out a conservative restoration of the roof, bell tower and church fabric, renewing the roof covering, securing the bell chamber and protecting the façade windows.