PARISH CHURCH (1622-1843)

The church, dedicated to the bishop and martyr San Siro of Pavia, was rebuilt in eight years from 1622 to 1630, replacing the pre-existing sacred building (already named after the Lombard saint), previously rebuilt in 1538 on the site of a much older oratory that had become a parish church before 1573.

The facade, whose current forms date back to 1843, is simply composed of a triangular tympanum, two pilasters at the sides, a metope and triglyph frieze, a stone portal with pilasters and entablature. Internally, on the walls in the side chapels, in the apse sector and at the top of the two sectors towards the sides, there are paintings of various artistic styles and of different periods; one of them (Madonna del Rosario) is dated 1631 and signed by Agostino Stuchi or Steuco (“Steucus”) Roman, visible in the sumptuous side chapel that was built in that year by Marquis Geronimo Del Carretto. At the entrance of the church, on the left side, there is a plaque dating back to 1582, made according to the testamentary provision of the Marquis Tete Del Carretto, which remembers Count Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, famous Renaissance philosopher and Kabbalist; it testifies the intellectual relations maintained by the Lords of Gorzegno.

Almost the entire interior of the church is finely decorated with an extraordinary composition of stucco friezes and relief figures, in particular angelic figures, the work of skilled “Lugano” workers. Local people say that the church hides an underground passage that leads directly to the castle.