Along the ancient via Mercatorum that climbed from Olmo to the San Marco Pass, on a panoramic meadowy spur in the hamlet of Redivo di Averara, where the Venetian Vicar had his seat for centuries, an oratory was built in the 13th century dedicated to St Pantaleon, the saint doctor from Nicomedia in Bithynia, protector against illness. The feast has been celebrated ever since, still today, on 27th July.
The ancient building was rebuilt in the 15th century in the local Romanesque-Gothic style, with a simple hall and square presbytery, decorated on the walls and facades with frescoes of which some fragments can still be seen, and with a slender bell tower that gives a sense of momentum from the single to the triple lancet windows. On the bell tower are the oldest bells in the valley, dating from 1496 and 1502, which were joined by a third in 1954. The church was consecrated in 1488 by the Milanese archbishop Rolando dei conti di Rovellasca. In the second half of the 17th century it was lengthened and raised to its current position.
Inside, in the solemn marble ancon over the presbytery, you can admire the beautiful painting by Andrea Michieli, known as Il Vicentino (1567-1617), a disciple of Tintoretto, depicting St Pantaleone with Saints Francis and Charles.
An important work of carving and inlay is the choir in the presbytery, signed and dated by the author Pietro Milesi in 1706. The fresco on the vault of the presbytery representing the beheading of St Pantaleone dates back to 1800.
Italian