Church

Church of San Giacomo

The Vittani and Rusconi are fighting, and San Giacomo’s porch takes the blow. Then decay and remodeling do what the feud could not: turn a vast Romanesque church into the compact fragment in front of you.

Address: Piazza Guido Grimoldi, Como
Area: Como, Italy

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Why it is worth the detour

This compact Romanesque church once extended almost to the Broletto and may have formed half of a double-cathedral complex. Factional fighting, decay, and drastic remodeling gradually cut it down to the partly hidden building you see today.

The Church of San Giacomo is a hidden gem in Como, known for its Romanesque architecture and historical significance as part of a former double-cathedral complex. Despite its reduced size due to historical conflicts and remodeling, it remains a noteworthy site.

What else is close by

The nearest places we have written up, with straight-line distance from here.

50 m
Broletto
A bell rings over medieval Como, citizens converge on the square, and civic power plants itself between cathedral and bishop’s palace. Then factional conflict brings fire—and the expanding cathedral claims part of what survives.
100 m
Como Cathedral
No battery, no grand experiment: according to local tradition, the elderly Alessandro Volta came here for Mass each day. Inside, a floor plaque marks the place associated with that quiet routine.
100 m
Torre Pantera
In medieval Como, a clan’s tower could be forcibly shortened. In 1292, that happened to the Rusconi tower beneath Torre Pantera.
100 m
Church of San Provino
September 22, 1794: Alessandro Volta, a scientific celebrity at home in Europe’s salons, came to this small church to marry Teresa Peregrini. The setting was strikingly understated; the bride, his letters make clear, was anything but a footnote.
100 m
Piazza Cavour and the Exhibition That Rose Twice
On July 8, 1899, smoke and flames tore through Como’s grand celebration of electricity. The cause was a short circuit—a grim irony followed by a remarkably fast comeback.
150 m
Albergo Terminus
Look from the lake to the Art Nouveau façade: in 1902, Como’s working waterfront was dressing for a new role. The twist? Albergo Terminus was not only a hotel—it also provided bathing facilities for the hotel next door.