Chiesa di San Bartolomeo Apostolo

San Bartolomeo Apostolo is the church of Costa, a mountain settlement in Gargnano's territory. A portico precedes its simple gabled facade, while a painted vault and three altars enrich the single hall within.

Why it matters

The church reflects the role of the vicinia, the assembly of local household heads, in building and maintaining a community's religious centre. Its furnishings bring seventeenth- and eighteenth-century patronage into one compact interior.

What to notice

The altar of Saint John the Baptist contains a Baptism of Jesus within a gilded wooden frame. At the Rosary altar, a nineteenth-century Madonna stands within an older frame decorated with oval scenes of the fifteen mysteries. The baroque high altar combines polychrome marbles and dates from the early eighteenth century.

Context and history

The side chapels and presbytery were rebuilt in the eighteenth century, incorporating earlier furnishings such as the later-seventeenth-century Baptist altar. A possible connection with an earlier house of hospitality forms part of the church's traditional history, but the dedication alone does not establish such an origin.