Architettura religiosa e segni sacri in area comasca al tempo di Cesare Cattaneo

This essay reconstructs the religious architecture framework in the Como area in the years when Cesare Cattaneo (1912-1943) lived and worked, framing the issue in the wider socio-cultural context of the time and mentioning the transformations due to the phenomenon of attraction exerted by the large modern city of Como towards smaller centers of the valleys and along the lakeshore. The author proposes, therefore, a close examination of the main sites of the time, re-reading the work of the single professionals also in the light of the motions filed by the diocesan curia. The author shows how high the Como religious hierarchies have undertaken to renew the sacred language of the first half of the twentieth century, often responding to the requirements and demands from the faithfuls. The embryonic and significant change that is achieved, however, did not become a radical renewal of art and architecture in a modern way, despite the presence of professionals and famous artists and participation in the debate of important international figures in the field of rationalism and of abstractionism.