Via Pietro Paolo Parravicini, 30, 23017 Morbegno SO
The historical center of Morbegno features ecclesiastic buildings of exceptional artistic value, such as the collegiate church of San Giovanni Battista or the church of Sant’Antonio annexed to the Dominican convent.
The Cammino Mariano (Marian Way) leads through their respective squares, affirming the importance of monuments that tell the story of the city and relate it to salient cultural sites up and down the valley.
The stopping point on the itinerary, however, is farther off the beaten track. While less grandiose and conspicuous than the above monuments, this Marian site is a treasure chest of art, imbued with deep spirituality yet also doleful memories, and very dear to the people of Morbegno.
The church of the Beata Vergine delle Grazie is located on the historic Via Margna, which connects the central shopping street with the State Highway inaugurated in 1939. It is familiarly known in the local dialect as the gisèta (little church), or church of the “Pasquin”, in memory of the family that had it built in 1665 in a setting once immersed amidst vineyards and mulberry groves.
It must originally have been a small chapel, but we know nothing of how it looked. The original walls were engulfed by the expansion built in the early 20th century, which included a reworked façade and new interior decorations. The church now shows a certain unity of décor, with frescoes painted in 1912 by Davide Beghè, a Ligurian painter who studied at the Brera Academy and worked in a number of churches in Liguria and Lombardy.
The painting dearest to local worshippers is the Enthroned Madonna and Child in a niche on the main altar. In all probability it was placed in the 17th-century chapel, but painted earlier, as suggested by a style characteristic of the late 15th-early 16th century.
The church was the traditional place where peasant children in the confraternity of San Luigi Gonzaga (Aloysius Gonzaga) gathered and studied before entering the confraternity of the Madonna Assunta as adults. The young “Luisìn” (from San Luigi) participated in the processions dressed in white robes and light blue capelets and were very proud of the statue of San Luigi Gonzaga, a gift from the Bishop of Como, Teodoro Valfrè di Bonzo in 1905. We can easily imagine them with upturned faces, spying on the painter on the scaffolding who was embellishing their church.
World War I broke out soon after Beghè completed his work; the youths who had developed spiritually in the confraternity were called to arms. Many would not return, but in 1919 those that did crowded into the church for four days of prayer led by a priest who had come specially from Lake Como. In the following years, they would be the ones to design and build the first male parish youth center in the city, naturally dedicated to San Luigi Gonzaga.
