The origins of the Church of San Carlo date back to the 17th century, when Count Carlo III Borromeo (1580 – 1625) had stables built on the lake shore for breeding Dutch mares. The majestic Baroque project remained unfinished, but one room was converted into an Oratory, dedicated to St. Charles Borromeo, which expanded over the following centuries and became a parish church in 1831. The dedication to St Charles finds further reasons in the writings of the Saint’s biographer, Giovan Pietro Giussani.

In the detailed description of the Pastoral Visits, Feriolo is mentioned twice as a mooring place and short stop during the navigation of the lake, which St Charles travelled on a poor boat to reach even the most peripheral places of his vast archdiocese, as far as Ascona. The façade is marked by four pilasters, which also continue in the upper part, and the crowning is a triangular tympanum with a faded fresco depicting the Borromeo.

The interior has a single nave with four side chapels covered by barrel vaults and bordered, the two closest to the apse, by granite balustrades. Noteworthy are the rich 18th-century balustrades and the polychrome marble altar in the presbytery. All the walls are punctuated by black marble pilasters with gilded stucco Corinthian capitals. Worthy of note is the precious 18th-century statue of Our Lady of the Rosary and an ex voto commemorating the Feriolo disaster of 15 March 1867, when a landslide swept over part of the village that was swallowed up in the waters of the lake.

Contact

(Religious ceremony)
Address: Via della Chiesa Fraz. Feriolo – 28831 Baveno (VB)