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Sorico

Santo Stefano, Sorico

Sorico's parish church, begun in 1443 beside a massive square bell tower and remade in the eighteenth century for the Giulini family, with a Musso marble doorway, a Renaissance triptych and the altar of 1766.

Visit duration
15–30 min
Booking
Not required
Area
Upper Lake
The vaulted nave with its pews, the side chapels and the high altar at the end, a large crucifix on a red drape.GsK · Public domain
  • Torsade de Pointes · CC0
  • GsK · CC0

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The vaulted nave with its pews, the side chapels and the high altar at the end, a large crucifix on a red drape.

GsK · Public domain

Why go

Santo Stefano is Sorico's parish church, built between 1443 and 1455 to replace the church at Olonio.

It stands on the site of an earlier church, probably Romanesque. The Musso marble portal and a Crucifixion attributed to Giorgio Scotti date from the fifteenth century. In the early eighteenth century, the Giulini family promoted major alterations: the nave and two aisles were replaced by a single nave with side chapels, and the façade was rebuilt. The high altar in coloured marbles dates from 1766. Inside is also a Renaissance triptych of the Virgin nursing the Child between Saints Stephen and Vincent.

  • On the jambs of the fifteenth-century doorway, framed by twisted colonnettes, are carved symbols and inscriptions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
  • In the predella of the triptych the twelve apostles stand in three groups, separated by the four Doctors of the Church.
  • The 1766 high altar is the work of the marble workers Francesco Maria and Pietro Giacomo Longhi of Viggiù.

Highlights

  • The square fifteenth-century bell tower
  • The Musso marble doorway
  • The triptych of the nursing Madonna between Saints Stephen and Vincent
  • The polychrome marble high altar of 1766

Getting there

  • It stands in the centre of Sorico, the last village on the western shore before the Pian di Spagna.

On the map

Explore the lake
SoricoGera LarioSanto Stefano, Sorico

© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL

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Sources and credits

Verified at source8 Oct 2026North Lake Comoopens in a new tab

Sources and credits

Verified at source8 Oct 2026North Lake Comoopens in a new tab