Santa Croce Church, Catholic church in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland.

Santa Croce Church is a house of worship in Riva San Vitale featuring an octagonal dome supported by eight monumental columns that dominate its interior space. The design includes two side chapels and a pronounced presbytery area where the altar is located.

The church was built between 1580 and 1584 at the wish of Giovanni Andrea Della Croce, archpriest of Riva San Vitale from 1553 to 1563. The architect Giovanni Antonio Piotti, called il Vacallo, erected the building in 1588-1592, inspired by Pellegrino Tibaldi, to whom the church was long wrongly attributed. Bishop Filippo Archinti of Como consecrated it on 30 May 1599. It was restored by architect Aurelio Galfetti between 1967 and 1975.

The high altar is dedicated to the Legend of the True Cross, with canvases showing Saint Helena carrying the cross to Jerusalem, the Finding of the True Cross, and Constantine's dream before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. The altarpieces are by Camillo Procaccini and his school; the left chapel is dedicated to the Virgin, with an Assumption surrounded by the Apostles.

The church stands in Riva San Vitale, in the canton of Ticino. The interior is a single square hall extended into a Greek cross by three side chapels, so the four corners become chapels and the upper plan turns octagonal. Look up: the dome rests on eight columns painted in encaustic to imitate marble.

The lantern sits on the copper dome over the octagonal tiburio, not on the bell tower. The bell tower holds three bells: two cast in 1588 and one in 1590, all recast in 1946 by the Barigozzi foundry of Milan.