Oratorio della Natività di Maria Santissima - Oratorio della Natività di Maria Santissima

The oratory - also known with the dedication to San Giulio - is made up of three buildings that can be clearly distinguished by observing the building from above. The central one is the oldest and most precious and preserves paintings ranging from the end of the 1400s to the beginning of the 1600s, partly done by the Cagnola workshop, very active in the area. The front was probably added in 1677 as an epigraph states. The presbytery and the small bell tower are, however, eighteenth century. The impression is that the building is now very neglected, always closed and therefore very difficult to visit.

Hidden in the peace of the wood of the small fraction of Ronco Sopra is the small church of San Giulio [or of the Nativity of Maria Santissima). It is composed of three bodies from different eras even if the general image derives from the interventions of the Baroque age: the oldest body, the nave, is low and of small dimensions; of the seventeenth century is the entrance portico (the date 1677 is shown on a small window); of the eighteenth century the apsidal area, which probably replaced the original semicircular apse, with a small bell tower (dated 1761) which is flanked by the sacristy. Inside the church, a presbytery lamp indicates the date 1762. Noteworthy are the frescoes that decorate the walls, made between the late fifteenth and early seventeenth centuries, as reported in 1987 by Casimiro Debiaggi. Some are visible but very degraded and in need of urgent restoration and others are hidden under layers of lime or repainting. To the left of the entrance are two orders organized according to autonomous scenes, all executed during the fifteenth century. They are most likely the work of the Gagnoli school, from Tommaso to their children, especially Francesco. Above, from the left: an unidentifiable Saint, because covered with lime, perhaps Saint Anthony the Abbot, for the mantle and the long stick; San Sebastiano. Below, from the left: San Giulio, patron saint of Cusio, who blesses, while sailing on his cloak towards the island to be freed from the snakes; this is the most famous representation of the saint and here appears one of the first times. Following the Madonna enthroned with the Child standing, a very widespread image similar to that of the church in the cemetery of nearby Cesara; the Crucifixion, a simple scene, with profound recollection in the gestures of Christ, of the Madonna and of Saint John the Evangelist; the Madonna with the Child on her lap; a saint, perhaps San Bernardino da Siena. To the right of the entrance are two frescoes of a later period: San Corto Borromeo praying with the halo, kneeling near the altar and accompanied by a young gentleman, kneeling himself also dressed in late-sixteenth or early seventeenth-century clothes. This fresco can therefore be dated to after 1610, the year of Borromeo's canonization. The second depicts the Madonna enthroned and the Child Jesus standing and blessing, datable to the XVI century, of Gaudenzian ancestry. The picture of the Nativity of Mary Most Holy is now preserved in the church of San Defendente in Ronco Sotto.