Chiesa di San Fermo

A hillside church above Pallanza has a layered history: a fourteenth-century Catholic oratory, its country fair, and its conversion for Romanian Orthodox worship in 2007. Inside the 1908 building by Febo Bottini, a monumental oak iconostasis with icons painted in Romania turns a small Lombard church into an Orthodox liturgical space.

Why it matters

The church was loaned by Pallanza's Catholic parishes to the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Italy in 2007 and consecrated by Bishop Siluan in 2009. Its history links a medieval oratory, an early twentieth-century rebuilding and a later Orthodox consecration.

What to notice

The interior's iconostasis is a carved oak wall of icons and doors separating the nave from the sanctuary, crafted for the Orthodox community by the sculptor Cristea Vasile with icons by Livia Pavel, in contrast to the plain lines of Bottini's 1908 architecture. A large chandelier of Greek manufacture hangs in the nave, and later interior painting follows Byzantine models, with work in the altar area, a band of saints in the nave and the narthex executed by Romanian painters. Weatherproof icons of Christ Pantocrator, the Theotokos and the patron saint adorn the exterior. The church stands on Collagnola hill above the town.

Context and history

The original building was a fourteenth-century oratory dedicated to St Bartholomew on the Collagnola hill, famous locally for the country fair held each August around the feast of St Fermo — dancing, games, charity stalls and a hair-cutting ritual whose original meaning is now lost. Demolished in 1906 to make way for the adjacent Santa Maria college on the Castagnola hill, it was replaced on nearby land thanks to donations from Pallanza families: the new church, designed by architect Febo Bottini, was consecrated on 8 August 1908 and dedicated to Saints Bartholomew and Fermo. A sixteenth-century painting of St Bartholomew's martyrdom from the old oratory survives in the nearby church of Santo Stefano. As the fair faded the church fell out of regular use, and in 2007 the parishes of San Leonardo and Santo Stefano granted it to the Romanian Orthodox community, which obtained it for exclusive use that May; Bishop Siluan consecrated it in 2009, and renovations since — funded also by the Fondazione Comunitaria del VCO and the owning Catholic parish — have renewed the roof and interior.