Monastery of Santa Maria del Lavello, Calolziocorte (LC)

The attention of art historians to the Sanctuary of the Lavello is owed above all to its abundant interior decoration, which testifies to its importance as a place of pilgrimage since the 15th century. The structure, a single nave divided into three bays by transverse tympanum arches on which the roof framing rests, has at the apse two barrel-vaulted chapels framed at the front by pilasters with bases and capitals in Sarnico stone.

The very poor condition of the wall paintings, like almost all the surfaces of the nave, was mainly due to rising damp in the walls, favoured by the proximity of the Adda, and to considerable condensation. The aim of the project was to meet both the conservation needs and the need for better use of the monument, considered as a liturgical space and as a cultural heritage asset.

The works made it possible to discover and recover, beneath repeated coats of paint, the iconographic scheme of the two apsidal spaces and, on the north wall, the decorations of the chapel of the Servants of Mary, where two fine roundels with the Virgin and the Angel of the Annunciation emerged on the sides of the triumphal arch.

To remedy the structural instability shown by the detachment and outward rotation of the façade towards the churchyard, the façade was anchored to the perimeter walls by building, at the level of the choir loft floor, a braced timber deck that also made it possible to relieve the small vaults below. To contain the thrust exerted by the vault on the outer side of the right-hand end chapel, a new steel tie was inserted in the back wall of the apse.