Churches of Varenna

Church of San Giorgio and Church of San Giovanni Battista

Villas, gardens, inner peace: this is Varenna, with two architectural gems, the Church of San Giorgio and the Church of San Giovanni Battista. A must-see open year-round.

Church of San Giorgio

Consecrated in 1313, the Church of San Giorgio represents a perfect example of 14th-century Lombard architecture. Located in the square of the same name and structured in three naves, its façade features a rose window and a fresco depicting Saint Christopher.

The current high altar, inaugurated in 1822 after 16 years of work, is in Baroque style, with a mensa in black and red marble with inlays. The tabernacle is in Neoclassical style. Also noteworthy is the flooring, entirely made of black Varenna marble.
The interior frescoes are remarkably beautiful: on the counter-façade there is a scene of hell with Satan holding the Antichrist in his arms, while on the two cylindrical columns leading to the high altar, we can see the figures of a Saint with a mitre and a crowned Saint—attributable to Pope Gregory and Queen Theodolinda—as well as other figures in the southern chapel, including the clearly legible figure of Saint Benedict.
Inside we can admire, among other things, the Polyptych of San Giorgio by Jo Pietro de' Brentanis (1467), a local artist belonging to the Giottesque art of northern Italy. The altarpiece dates to 1533, the work of Como painter Sigismondo De' Magistris, and depicts Jesus kneeling on a stone emerging from the waters of the Jordan River.
The Polyptych of the High Altar, dating to the 16th century, is a composition of wooden panels, remnants of a polyptych by an unknown author. It was the altarpiece of the high altar in the time of Saint Charles, when by intervention of the Archbishop, a decree established that "wooden altars should be removed and marble altars made." The frame was therefore sold in the mid-18th century and the panels were partly preserved in the Archive, partly on top of the Sacristy furniture, and partly in the attic.
Two other notable features are the Altar of the Madonna of the Rosary, in Baroque style and made of gray and polychrome marble, and the Statue of the Madonna of the Rosary, in gilded wood and attributable to the Sienese school.
The Confessional is the work of Giovanni Albiolo from Bellagio and dates to 1690. It features a walnut structure with three arches and 4 carved caryatids with angel faces and festoons of flowers and fruit.
On the north wall of the Church we find the Baptistery, a niche with a basin of inlaid black marble surmounted by a walnut wood ciborium and burl wood doors. Two light balustrades of Varenna marble, inlaid with iron mirrors, enclose the area of respect. Wrought iron gate.
The Bell Tower was finally completed in 1653. The shaft is massive as if it were a tower; the corners are of exposed stone, while the infill masonry has no distinctive features and is interspersed with brick; a double border with an interposed band separates the shaft from the bell cell which rises on four corner pinnacles with round-arched openings in the center, parapeted with an elegant balustrade with small columns; the top is finished with four pyramidal corner pinnacles with a ball at the apex; the conical spire is of brick with a diamond surface and ends with a copper sphere topped by a cross.

The Church of San Giovanni Battista

San Giovanni Battista is one of the oldest churches on Lake Como and the mother church of Varenna. Probably built before the year 1000, where a previous early Christian structure stood, its current form dates to 1151, when it was enlarged.
Restoration work carried out in the 1960s made it possible to recognize, beneath the 17th-century transformations, the Romanesque core with a single nave and small apse, as well as the original truss roof. An arcosolium with a burial function located low on the façade was also discovered.

The church, built externally in rough, undecorated stone, features important frescoes inside. The side walls are adorned with 14th-century frescoes of excellent workmanship but in poor condition; on the left wall is depicted an Adoration of the Magi, and on the right wall Saint John the Baptist, some Saints, and Saint George slaying the dragon. The frescoes in the apse date to the early 16th century; in the basin is the depiction of the Redeemer between the Virgin and the Baptist surrounded by a grotesque motif with the coat of arms of the Serponti family. On the left wall are depicted the episodes of the Visitation and the Baptism of Christ (created by the same artist as the previous ones).

The Romanesque bell tower is built facing the lake, as was customary in ancient times, while the bells date to 1730.