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Esino Lario

San Pietro, Ortanella

Visit duration
15–30 min
Booking
Not required
Area
Lecco Branch
The small pale stone church with its wooden door, the cross on the front and the bell gable, in the meadow among trees.Ivo Kruusamägi · CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Kaitu · CC0
  • Maurizio Moro5153 · CC BY-SA 4.0

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The small pale stone church with its wooden door, the cross on the front and the bell gable, in the meadow among trees.

Ivo Kruusamägi · CC BY-SA 4.0

Why go

San Pietro stands at 996 metres, in the Ortanella hamlet of Esino Lario, in a meadow beside the mule track linking Esino and Lierna.

It is recorded as early as the thirteenth century: it appears in the list of churches by the Milanese priest Goffredo da Bussero. It is a stone chapel with a single nave, a round apse, a bell gable and one wooden door facing west. In 1927 the Milanese Fontana family had it restored and frescoed with a Saint Peter by Ezio Moioli; in the 1960s it was rebuilt on the old foundations at the initiative of the mayor Pietro Pensa. The old road along the eastern shore passed here: between Mandello and Bellano the rocks drop sheer into the lake, and from Lierna the way climbed to Ortanella before going down to Vezio. Beside the church a stone post still marks the boundary between Varenna and Esino.

  • A small stone church on its own in a meadow among woods, on an old mule track.
  • A stop on the walk between Lierna, Esino and Varenna.

Highlights

  • The round stone apse
  • The bell gable
  • The boundary stone between Varenna and Esino

Getting there

  • Ortanella is a hamlet of Esino Lario, above Varenna; the chapel is on Via San Pietro, beside the mule track between Esino and Lierna.
The stone boundary post inscribed Varenna, in the grass beside the church.Kaitu · CC0

On the map

Explore the lake
LiernaEsino LarioSan Pietro, Ortanella

© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL

Nearby: places, experiences, services

Distances as the crow flies.

Sources and credits

Sources and credits