Churches
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Between history and tradition in search of places of veneration and pilgrimage, touching all the villages in an ideal journey through the past. Maybe, everything began in 1169 when the Cistercians, together with the fugitives of Comacina Island took refuge in Pleasio, after the army of Barbarossa had attacked and ravaged the island. The monks built their convent where today you can find the remains of the houses still called "il convento". Following the oral tradition, many others followed this first one: one in Breglia and Calveseglio, another in Ligomena, two in Barna (a nunnery and a monastery). The monks are thought to have started the construction, along the old link-roads, of many niches, votive chapels and a little churches you can still find on our territory. When, later, the villages grew larger, they built the churches of S.Fedele in Plesio, S.Gregorio Magno in Breglia and S.Maria Maddalena in Barna. It's the white Sanctuary of Madonna di Breglia on the top of Mount Gordola which polarizes the spiritual interest of the believers. Inside, there is a marble statue of the Virgin Mary which has been venerated for more than two centuries. Brought there from Genoa in 1740 by a certain Tatti from Breglia, it was kept in a modest oratory until 1777 when they began to build the present church. On the last part of the cobbled road leading to the sanctuary you can find some of the 14 granite stations of "I Misteri del Rosario" keeping inside paintings on copper surfaces. In order to complete this ideal itinerary in search of the places faith, we cannot leave out the churches depending from S.Fedele in Plesio: S.Amate (1600 m. - on the ridge of Mount Bregagno, along an ancient route), S.Bernardo (first dedicated to S.Barnaba, it was built in Ligomena thanks to a donation of the local villagers), S.Rocco (placed between the parish church of Plesio and that of Barna, it was built, following the tradition, during the pestilence which afflicted our valley in 1648/49), S.Sebastiano (placed at the borders of Logo, it is considered the most ancient oratory of the parish church). |
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