Visit the Church of San Vincenzo in Gravedona, lake Como and the awasome crypt

The area on which the building stands, so close to the church of S. Maria del Tiglio, has presumably assumed a sacral function since antiquity, as it is evidenced by the finding of three roman pagan altars, a burial place and some sculptural fragments from Roman times. Both the tomb and the sculptural remains that are fragments of a capital, dating from the 1st to the 2nd century AD, were found during some works carried out in the St. Anthony's crypt beneath the church of San Vincenzo between 1977 and 1979. These works allowed us to hypothesize that the pavement of the nowadays floor of the apse, both for the placement of slabs and the circular rings, could be referred to the Roman era. Therefore, the building stands on an ancient sacred pagan area. With the spread of Christianity, Roman temples were demolished and a early Christian church was built in the 5th century A.C, of which part of the floor is still visible inside the crypt, and it might as well coincide with the original presbytery area.
The Romanesque building was consecrated on the first Sunday of September 1072, (but was heavily transformed into baroque age) and was divided into three naves divided by 14 pillars and covered with a coffered ceiling. The structure ended with three apses, each containing an altar; the central apse was frescoed and stood higher and closed by iron gates. Originally, he had three doors: one on the façade and one on each side; from that on the south side, it was gave the access to the crypt.
The aspect of the Romanesque building, of which only remain the crypt and some portions of the walls now set into the lateral walls, can be deduced from the description given by the bishop of Como Feliciano Niguarda in the acts of his Pastoral Visit, which evidently happened before the radical transformation of the building n the 17th century. At that time the church had three aisles covered by a coffered ceiling and three terminal apses of which the central was higher than the others. The crypt beneath the church was supported by thirty marble columns but it was flooded because of the rise in the lake level which, at that time, also changed the appearance and the function of the upper Larius lands. Inside the S. Antonio crypt there is no remnant of the decorative apparatus of this era with the exception of a piece fresco with an inscription dating back to 1304. Some documents of 1486 testify that in that year a wooden front-altar piece was commissioned to Giacomo del Maino and in 1516 a contract was signed with Bernardino Luini and Francesco De Donati for another wood front-altar piece, but unfortunately both works had gone lost. In 1582 the sacristy was completed, as it is reported in the pastoral visit that took place in 1593.

Starting from the 17th century, it began the radical transformation of the church. The three aisles had been reduced to one with side chapels; either the floor and the external walls were raised; in the place of the three apses, it was created a new rectangular presbytery which consequently modified and mutilated of the underneath crypt; then it was built a new façade with the addition of a front porch along the three sides of the building in which had been set the two Oratories of St. Marta and S. Michele for the confraternities of S. Marta and of Saint Sacrament. Starting from the 17th century, thanks to legacies and donations of the most important families of Gravedona, side chapels of the church were furnished and decorated. At the conclusion the first phase of these reconstruction works, the church was again consecrated by Bishop Carafino in 1627. During the great plague, described by Alessandro Manzoni in the "Promised Spouses", the porch had been utilized as a lazaretto.
During the following years, it was completed the vestry both with the addition of the wooden furniture, a work by Raffaele Falilela, and with the fresco inside the vault medallion representing the Glory of Saint Vincent by Pietro Bianchi from Como dating  1697. In 1726, it was added the front portico, at the time when were also started the works for building the choir. In 1735, Michelangelo Bellotti was entrusted to paint two canvas depicting Saint Vincent’s life, which gave way   to the works for decorating the presbytery Later, probably after the 1740, the altar piece, representing the Glory of Saint Vincent, and the decorations of the walls and ceiling of the choir, were commissioned to Carlo Innocenzo Carloni, a painter from Valle Intelvi, as it is reported into the registers preserved in the Archive of the Parish Church.
During the 19th century, some works of earth removing and lowering were carried out on the area at the northern side of the church, during which it was discovered a pagan altar and it was added a flight of stairs to allow the entrance through the lateral doorway. In 1889, also the interior decoration of the church was finally completed by Luigi Tagliaferri, who painted both the ornate drawings all along the walls of the nave and the painting on the vault of the presbytery. In that occasion, it was also carried out a general restoration of the church with the replacement of the floor, the renewing of the plaster and the reducing of the width of the windows.

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