The best walks and hikes around Lesa

A group of formerly modern buildings. Today, they are heavily damaged by vandalism. Has the developer become insolvent?

The parish church of San Rocco was built in the hamlet of Solcio in the municipality of Lesa to replace the older small church of Sant'Antonio Abate, which still exists upstream of the town. Founded at the expense of the local philanthropist Felice Borroni, it is a neoclassical building with an Ionic order and a Greek cross plan designed by the Verbanese architect Bartolomeo Franzosini between 1823 and 1830. The current bell tower was added later (1935-1938) to replace the original, smaller one. The façade of the church is decorated with a mosaic by Giovanni Sgorlon depicting the Saint. The interior is brightly intimate, with a single nave. The wooden pulpit on the left is elegant. The apse houses a Deposition of Christ by Morazzone and an Adoration of the Venetian school. The pendentives of the dome are decorated with frescoes by Gerolamo Induno depicting the four Evangelists (1886). The right altar is decorated with a Crucifixion, a fresco by Luigi Morgari from 1922 who also painted the entire cycle of the Via Crucis. On the left side of the entrance hall is the marble bust (posthumous) of the founder Borroni, who is buried in the temple. Above the entrance compass is the choir with an organ by the Mentasti company of Novara. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiesa_di_San_Rocco_(Solcio_di_Lesa)

Starting point to walk to the lake or to go to MIlano....

This beautiful church is located near the train station. The front facade is gleaming white and plastered. The sides appear more gray. The interior is somewhat sleepy.

The church of San Sebastiano is a religious building located in Lesa (NO), it is located along the road that leads from Lesa to Massino Visconti on a panoramic hill overlooking a crossing point of the Erno river and the town of Solcio. Mentioned for the first time in the Liber Notitiae Sanctorum Mediolani by Goffredo da Bussero from the 13th century, it is an example of a sacred building from the Romanesque period that has maintained its original structure in its entirety. The shape of the wall structure dates the construction period to 1100-1125. The small building, oriented from west to east, has a single nave, a gabled façade and a semicircular apse, the bell tower is particularly interesting, partially incorporated into the masonry of the perimeter wall of the building and has three orders of openings surmounted by hanging arches, a slit on the first level, a single-lancet window on the second and a double-lancet window on the third. Hanging arches also decorate the apse which has three pilasters with small windows, a cruciform opening in the apse corresponds to an internal fresco symbolically depicting redemption through the risen Christ. Other frescoes probably executed between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are found inside the apse. They depict Christ Pantocrator enclosed in an almond, surrounded by the four evangelists with their respective symbols and by some saints, an iconography already present in the church of San Donato in Sesto Calende. It is certain that the oratory in the past was one of the stops of the "rogations", ancient prayer processions for the conservation and prosperity of the sowings. Due to the remains of Roman tombs found in the meadow in front, it is assumed that the Oratory was used between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries as a burial place for victims of endemic diseases and as a lazaretto. In 2004, conservative restoration works were carried out, which mainly concerned the walls, the bell tower and the roof. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiesa_di_San_Sebastiano_(Lesa)

Not an easy tour, some paths are a little adventure.

Above Comnago and Villa Lesa, the summit of Monte alle Croci offers an unparalleled view of Lake Maggiore. Situated at an altitude of 628 metres, Monte alle Croci can be reached by several paths, one of which comes from the hamlet of Calogna.

Danger! All hiking trails to and from the summit are no longer accessible and completely overgrown. The golf course and new developments completely cut off access.