Sant'Abbondio, Gentilino

The church stands isolated from the village at a unique vantage point and is reached by a cypress alleyway through the cemetery. Its origins go back to 1372. The current parochial church was however only built in 1530. The late Romanesque belfry stands alone to the south of the entrance. The building is actually a basilica whose high façade with tympanum is divided into sections by columns with lateral volutes. The vault is decorated in illusionistic architectural paintings of great artistic value dating from around 1850. The rosary picture in chiaroscuro technique was painted in the early 18th century by Antonio Giuseppe Petrini. In the adjacent cemetery, you find the tomb of Pietro Boffa, the architect from Montagnola who worked mainly in Russia. This monument was designed by Vincenzo Vela in 1875 and is known as the "Prayer Monument". Also buried here is the writer Hermann Hesse.