art and culture

CAMPILIONE

According to Rusca, Vicar in Campione d'Italia in 1620, the toponym Campione (Campilione or Campellione in the medieval documents) means Field of Bacchus, "as these humble hills are full of generous vineyards and the name would be composed by Campo and Lyo, Lyo in greek means Bacchus".Rusca describes Campione as "a small place with a few houses, but it is big as far as value, dignity, antiquity, good soil, healthy air and beautiful territory are concerned"; even nowadays Campione reflects in the waters of the lake Ceresio important evidence of a glorious past.

THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF SAINT ZENONE

At a few metres from the lake-shore, in the north of the medieval core of the historical centre of Campione, there is the Church of Saint Zenone, now it is a town gallery. The present aspect of the ancient basilica is the result of some changes of the original romanic structure, which replaced a very ancient oratory, built in the first half of the VII century above the Lombardic necropolis which gathered the burials of the Totone family.This rich trader himself decided the destiny of Campione thanks to the gift of his properties to the Archibishop of Milan and to the basilica of Saint Ambrose.Recent archaeological excavation brought to light tombs of the VII and VIII centuries, visible thanks to a glass flooring. The apse of the ancient basilica is decorated with frescoes of the fourteenth century which represent the  theory of the twelve apostles and the saints. We can also see some bas-relieves from the local Maestri Campionesi who were skillful stone artists.

THE CHURCH OF SAINT PETER

The Church of Saint Peter closes in the south the original and medieval core of Campione. Inside the Church, built at the first time above a lombardic necropolis in the eigth century, an archaeological excavation, kept visible, brought to light the foundations of the apse of the former building and some lombardic tombs. Enlarged at the beginning of the XII century, it was then dedicated to the apostle Peter. In the nineteenth century a last change brought to the demolition of the narthex in order to give place to the new road towards Riva San Vitale. The glass door lets observe from the outside a precious cycle of 1326 frescoes. The paintings, along all the walls, tell stories about the Virgin Mary and about Christ and dress on many registers, with a didactic purpose, theories of apostles and saints.

SANTA MARIA DEI GHIRLI

Before the building of the coastal road in the nineteenth century, you arrived at the Church of Santa Maria dei Ghirli through the staircase which connects it to the ancient linking on the lake, beyond the entry in Campione, in the south of the village.Founded by Longobards it is quoted for the first time in a 874 document as the third of the churches in the village at the time of Totone,"built in honour sancta Marie locus qui vocatur Willari".Willari, a celtic word which meant the existence of a small group of houses, turned itself into Guirli and then into Ghirli, to which the vicar Rusca gives the romantic meaning of a place full of swallows. The devotion to the Virgin Mary (the Church is dedicated to the Annunciation) and the Maestri Campionesi( who elected it as their church and their meeting place of a confraternity) determined, during the centuries, enlargements and remakings in the building, in order to turn it into the present baroque model.The most important craftsman of the baroque factory was the campionese Isidoro Bianchi between 1623 and 1636. The façade was completed only about 1735,thanks to a stagy view linked to the staircase down to the lake. The inside is divided into two main spaces, separated by a grating: a gothic room with many frescoes of the fourteenth century (in particular the cycle of the stories of Saint John the Baptist)and, towered by the lantern, the presbytery wonderfully frescoed by Isidoro Bianchi, with the stories of Mary. The walls and the vaults are richily decorated with architectural elements and figures by plaster from the studio of Isidoro  himself. Outside, in the southern porch, a big fresco by Lanfranco and Filippolo De Veris, father and son (25 June 1400), depicts in an absolute original way the theme of the Judgement. Along the same wall, but pulled up from the northern porch, the fresco (1514) by a painter belonging to the circle of Bernardino Luini tells the stories of the Genesis.

THE STAINED-GLASS WINDOWS BY ALDO CARPI AND THE MUSEUM SCLULPTURES OF XIV AND XV CENTURY

Towards the end of the sixties, in the last century, Aldo Carpi realised, for the external Baptistry of the new Church of Saint Zenone, two wonderful stained-glass windows: the Resurrection and the Assumption of Mary. Around the figures of the Resurrected Christ and of Mary, the artist developed the theme of the Church telling the historical figures of the Milanese Church and of the Vatican Council II and his Popes. Inside the Baptistry itself, a museum collection of sculptures of XIV and XV century which recall the art of the Maestri Campionesi has been set up by the Town Hall of Campione d'Italia.