Church of S. Maria Hermitage of Barro mountain

Galbiate – Lecco

At the hermitage of Barro mountain the small Gothic church of S. Maria hosts great frescoes dated back to the eighteenth-century.

The small church of S. Maria is located at the Hermitage of Barro mountain and represents a real gem of late Gothic, hosting great frescoes dated back to the sixteenth and eighteenth-century.
Its origins goes back to late thirteenth-century when it was dedicated to St. Vittore. Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan, decided to build a small fortress close to the church on Barro mountain in 1450, that later became a Franciscan cloister.

The church hosts a wooden statue of Holy Virgin on the Baroque altar, which seems it was delivered there by St. Ambrogio. This statue has been worshiped during the centuries and nowadays; many miracles are ascribed to.
Inside we also can admire great frescoes:

on the right wall the traces of Virgin Mary with the Child are still visible. This painting dates back to the first decade of the sixteenth-century;
on the right wall, enclosed into a glass case, the greatest painting in: Madonna of the Milk, with its elegant strokes of Leonardesque school;
on the triumphant arch frescoes showing the church’s and cloister’s history as they have been passed down over the centuries. The wider frescoes depict the miracle of the lost sight (on the left) and St. Ambrogio who is sending the Madonna’s statue to Barro mountain. The smallest ones depict: the miracle of the bread, the miracle of the fire and a friar while is giving food to the poors.
in the lateral chapel dedicated to St. Francesco d’Assisi we can glimpse the traces of frescoes dated back to the seventeenth-century representing St. Chiara, the Blessed Agnese, St. Bonaventura, St. Pietro d’Alcantara and St. Bernardino.

A peculiarity of this church is represented by the presence of tombstones on the floor: they are relevant to figures here buried, among which the cloister’s friars and some nobles or famous people from Galbiate who asked to be buried in.

The church of S. Maria is immersed in the Monte Barro Regional Park and it is close to the Archaeological Museum of Piani di Barra with the pertaining Park Centre.

For more information visit the official website