Chiesa di San Giorgio
Thirteenth-century Lombard parish church with a giant exterior fresco of Saint Christopher and a floor of local black marble.
This guide to the Chiesa di San Giorgio in Varenna starts with a question posed above its own door: why paint a giant Saint Christopher on the outside wall of a lake-town church, facing the road to the water. It traces the medieval legend of Christopher carrying a child across a river, and the belief that grew from it about anyone leaving by boat. From there it follows the church's own history, consecrated in thirteen thirteen, and what changes once you step inside onto its floor of local black marble. Look up again once you cross the threshold; the wall above the door tells a very different story.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.