Church of Saints Cosma and Damiano
Over the centuries, on today's Piazza del Ponte, the two parish churches that preceded the present one have found their place: the first Romanesque, documented from 1323, and the second Baroque, consecrated in 1672.
Built on a promontory that makes it look even more majestic, the current church was built in neoclassical style designed by Luigi Fontana in the years 1863-75. Dedicated to the SS. Cosma and Damiano, it is considered the most imposing ecclesiastical building in Ticino.
The façade already shows this: the three-arched portico with pilasters and Corinthian columns imitates the Roman triumphal arch and is surmounted by a large attic with caryatids that culminate in the bell tower. The interior is also of neoclassical inspiration: the single nave, with a Greek cross plan, recalls the Roman baths, while the semicircular apse refers to the prehistoric basilica.
The majestic effect is obtained thanks to the high base on which stand the solid semi-columns, the cornice and the large dome. In the first chapel on the left is the baptismal font of the old Romanesque church, with a basin in Arzo marble and a pleasantly decorated wooden ciborium. Other works in the parish church come from the baroque church. For example, the high altar, designed in 1669-70 by Primo Lezzani and Giovanni Gaffuri, richly decorated with twisted columns, aedicules and statues, which make it almost a miniature Baroque temple.
Or the second chapel on the right, which in a niche of the altar in black marble houses a Madonna del Rosario attributed to Agostino Silva. It is complemented by the Mysteries of the Rosary painted in the years 1654-59 by Francesco Torriani and his collaborators.