Church of St. John - Baptismal Room

Church of Saint John - Baptismal Room

Is the island's most important archaeological find and was discovered between 1958 and 1959. Remains of a sacred early-Christian double-apse building, which underwent various design changes throughout the centuries; initially perhaps it was a square room, then single-apse, and in the end double-apse. Caroligian frescoed walls, Mosaic floors form the 9th century A.D. - north apse, mosaic fragments from the 5th century A.D. - south apse. Baptismal tub (for immersion baptisms) in limestone mortar and covered with marble slabs. In front of the tomb arcosolium (an architectural type used for funeral monuments) of Bishop Agrippino (beginning of the 7th century) whose tombstone with a poetic, laudatory inscription is now embedded in the wall of the St. Eufemia parish on the mainland, while his ashes were first taken to the Monastery of Acquafredda above Lenno, then to Delebio in Valtellina.

Church of St. Maria with the Portico: ruins of the external walls and of the flooring of the Romanesque church (12th century), the church built on the area of another, more ancient oratory. It was destroyed in 1169 and was discovered in 1958-59.

Church of St. Peter in Castello: on the eastern vertex toward Sala, ruins of a single-apse Romanesque church (12th century), built over a more ancient structure, perhaps belonging to the islands fortified area.

Church of St. Faustino and St. Giovita: remains of a Romanesque church (12th century), externally single-apse, and internally double-apse, already belonging to the Benedictine convent. Church and convent were destroyed in 1169.