Como’s awesome marble-clad cathedral is one of the most important buildings on the lake, incorporating a variety of styles – Romanesque, Renaissance and Gothic topped by a rococo cupola – over its centuries-long construction between 1396 and 1770. Inside, Renaissance chapels flank a wide cross-vaulted nave, which is hung with huge tapestries woven in gold thread in Ferrara, Florence and Antwerp. Statues of Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger adorn the facade, an unusual honour for two humanist philosophers.
A comprehensive historical timeline inside tracks the church and its forerunners from early Christian antiquity to present-day restoration.