The church of the village of Marasino stands at the fork in the hillside road crossing the inhabited centre. The current floor plan, dating back to the late 15th Century, faces north-south, however the original orientation was facing east, as inferred by the ruins of the Romanesque apse integrated in the left wall, near the façade. Some fragments of frescos were detached from the apse before being demolished (now located in the rectory of Sale Marasino) dating back to the 14th and 15th Century. The façade is characterised by a hut profile, portal with lunette, two side windows with steps-kneeling stools and a oeil-de-boeuf; the corner facing the lake features some remains of a fresco depicting an enormous San Cristoforo (St. Christopher) (15th Century), patron saint of travellers. A closed oeil-de-boeuf is visible in the external wall of the sanctuary.
The single-nave interior was transformed in the late 19th Century with a new lowered vault covering; an altar was placed inside the sanctuary that partially covered and destroyed the Renaissance adornment including the frescoed altarpiece. The work brought to light depicts a blessing St. Anthony the Abbot in religious garments inserted in a faux architecture, while the upper portion features an Announcing Angel facing the Virgin (no longer visible) that was depicted on the right. The frescos were executed by a workshop operating in various construction sites between the 15th and 16th Century, among which the church of Santi Ippolito e Cassiano (St. Hippolytus and Cassiano) in Zone and Gandizzano [101]. The lunette depicting the Rest on the Flight into Egypt located inside the sanctuary and the tondo (circular panel painting) depicting the Theological Virtues in the nave vault date back to the 19th Century and were most likely the work of Antonio Guadagnini. In the nave vault, the painting with St. Anthony the Abbot in glory is perhaps the copy by Giuliano Volpi during the late 19th Century, of an 18th Century fresco in the parish church of Gratacasolo [81] depicting the Glory of St. Zeno. The former altarpiece (now hung on the nave walls) depicting the Vision of St. Anthony the Abbot by Jacopo Palma il Giovane (Young Palma), is particularly prestigious; the Madonna and Child and Saints by Bernardino Bono in the 18th Century is however of a more average level.

Federico Troletti