Santuario della Madonna dei Ceppi

Halfway up the hillside behind Lezzeno, a small historic church overlooks Lake Como. The Madonna dei Ceppi houses a Quattrocento marble Madonna and Child and stands amid hamlets, chestnut woods and a forest of carved animals.

Why it matters

Lezzeno stretches for kilometres along the lakeshore, but its older life happens above the road, in the steep hamlets connected by paths. The sanctuary stands on the wooded hillside above Lezzeno. It preserves a marble statue of the Madonna with Child dating from the fifteenth century.

The building matters to the lake's cultural map because it records how devotion was organised in the small communities of the Como shore — rural sanctuaries built within reach of the hamlets they served, holding images that were themselves old when the modern road arrived. It also belongs to the historic network of Strada Regia paths above Lezzeno, which developed from former mule tracks.

What to notice

The church stands on the wooded hillside above Lezzeno, with views over Lake Como. Its defining artwork is the marble Madonna and Child, a Quattrocento sculpture. The nearby Bosco di Maddi contains life-size wooden carvings of animals, including a badger, fox and eagle-owl. Other historic buildings in Lezzeno include the Baroque parish church of Santi Quirico e Giulitta and the oratory of Santa Maria, with seventeenth-century stuccoes.

Context and history

The sanctuary belongs to the network of rural religious buildings on the mountainsides above the Lario. Its marble Madonna and Child preserves a fifteenth-century element of this devotional heritage.

The surrounding network of Strada Regia paths reflects the historic links between Lezzeno's lakeside settlement and its hillside hamlets.