Chiesa di S. Lorenzo

San Lorenzo stands in Mossanzonico, a quarter of Dongo, along the historic Via Antica Regina. The present church dates to 1578 and occupies the site of an earlier chapel of Romanesque origin.

Why it matters

The building represents the smaller places of worship that served Dongo's outlying communities. Its restrained scale and surviving fragments preserve a different aspect of local devotion from the town's larger churches.

What to notice

A single nave opens into two side chapels and a square-ended presbytery. Plastered masonry and a simple gabled roof define the exterior, while Varenna stone forms the steps to the presbytery. Fragments of older fresco decoration remain as evidence of a more extensive painted interior.

Context and history

The sixteenth-century rebuilding continued worship on an older sacred site. By the end of that century the church contained an altarpiece depicting the Virgin and Child with Saints Stephen, Lawrence, Nicholas and Anthony beneath God the Father. The pairing of Stephen and Lawrence joined the patron of Dongo's principal parish with this church's own dedication.