Armeno’s Romanesque Parish Church (12th century)
(10 min. by car from Orta)
If you are a true lover of Romanesque architecture you won't want to miss this incredible site, a real gem dating back at least 8 centuries!
It was built just outside the village of Armeno, at the crossroads between the road leading to lake Maggiore and the other leading to the North.
The origins of the village's name remain a mystery...
Apart from the altar area (rebuilt in the 19th century in order to enlarge it),both church and bell-tower are very well preserved, with some little carved decorations in the form of human faces and animals.
The whole structure was built in regular stone blocks and part of the wall surface was later covered with several fresco paintings, the majority of which are still visible today. These depict Madonnas and saints revered by a population in times when the best hope for a cure lay in prayer as medicines for the simplest of ailments did not yet exist ...
Of particular interest is the presence on a column of a rare medieval fresco depicting a triple-headed Holy Trinity which miraculously survived the zealous censorship of the Roman Catholic Inquisition...
