Trescore Balneario

The church dedicated to Saint Barbara and Saint Brigida, within the park of Villa Suardi, was built by cousins Giovan Battista and Maffeo in the early 16th century (specifically, 1502). It was entirely frescoed by Lorenzo Lotto, with the exception of the apse (which bears an anonymous work of considerable importance due to the history of the building and the family of Giovan Battista Suardi portrayed therein).
The painter came to Trescore, called directly by Giovan Battista, one of the inspirers of the subjects for the inlays of the choir of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo, on which Lotto was working at the time. In the parish church of Trescore Balneario, he also painted a chapel with the stories of San Rocco, which was unfortunately destroyed in the 18th century.

The entire cycle of frescoes, the themes and symbolism are an effective synthesis of contemporary preaching against the risks of the Protestant Reformation (which had particularly attacked the primacy of the Pope, the worship of the Virgin Mary and the Saints, along with the real presence of the Eucharist), of which the German armies that periodically invaded the territory of the Valle Cavallina were the spreaders.

Until the last century, the church stood right beside the road that connected Bergamo and the plain with the valleys and the north. The current layout of the park, villa and church dates back to 1883. It was Count Gianforte Suardi who commissioned the construction of the covered connecting corridor, the terracotta additions over the original exposed stonework and the construction of the bell tower and small sacristy. Outside the church are two tombs of the Suardi family, one of which is of the Comacine school and belongs to Lanfranco di Baldino Suardi, who was Podestà of Genoa and died in 1331.