The Church of Saint Zeno is the oldest of the valley and was built during the Ottonian period on a strategic place that dominated the lake and valley before the year 1000 and is located on a pre-existing sacred area on the top of Mount Auragio when the cult of Saint Zenone (bishop of Verona in the IV century) was spreading. It was built to fulfil the vows of the masters from Como who had been caught in a storm on the lake of Bellagio as they returned from the construction of the Church of Saint Zenone in Verona. This very ancient and unifying cult always had the role of a bulwark for all the community during the period of the passage of the caravans from the Alps to the Po Valley. The building had a facade that was painted red and a castle with a bell tower and was consecrated in 1215 by the Bishop Guglielmo della Torre on the relics of the Holy Sepulchre as can be read on the inscriptions on the plaque of Saint Zeno that is preserved in the Bishop’s lapidarium in Como and was guarded by hermit monks. From the XV century it was decorated with stuccos, vaults, niches and by statues and paintings dedicated to Saint Bernard, to the Immaculate Virgin and Saint Rocco and maintained by confraternities. Monte San Zeno has always been a destination for devotion by all the surrounding valleys and the church had a small sacristy with a segmented vault and a constant water source.
In 1956 it was struck by lightning with the subsequent collapse of the roof and bell tower and remained in ruins until 1996 when the "Comitato Pro San Zeno - una chiesa per il 3° Millennio" (Committee Pro-Zeno – for a church for the 3rd Millennium) began to rebuild it. The ancient remains and the ancient altar were blessed by Bishop Alessandro Maggiolini in 2000. The facade bears the Campana dei Giovani (Bell of the Young People) signed by 60 young people from Intelvi as a testimony to a thousand years of faith and blessed by Pope John Paul II in Rome on May 27, 1998. The path of the climb has the Stations of the Cross made from railway sleepers by groups of Alpini (former Alpine troops) of the valleys in memory of the retreat from the Don in Russia (1942-1943). The adjacent hermitage that arose from the ancient foundations was built from 2013 to 2015 by the Amici del San Zeno (Friends of Saint Zeno). The church was solemnly consecrated by Bishop Diego Coletti in 2015 and is full of donations of works of art, one of which is the reproduction of the Iron Crown, in memory of the territory’s very ancient Christian roots.
The traditional local feast is held in August.
For further information visit the site of the Local Council of Ceranod'Intelvi: http://www.comune.ceranodintelvi.co.it/c013063/zf/index.php/servizi-aggiuntivi/index/index/idtesto/28