San Tommaso di Canterbury church, Parish church in Corenno Plinio, Dervio, Italy.
San Tommaso di Canterbury is a parish church in Corenno Plinio, Dervio, with stone walls displaying remarkable frescoes from the 14th to 16th centuries. These painted surfaces show biblical scenes and saints that fill the interior with religious imagery.
The church is attested in the Liber Notitiae Sanctorum Mediolani of the late 13th century. Its rare dedication to Thomas Becket points to a late Romanesque origin. On 3 November 1566 Archbishop Carlo Borromeo made it a parish separate from Dervio. In 1795 the nave was lengthened and raised and a barrel vault added.
The church follows the Ambrosian Rite, a liturgical tradition from the Milan area that differs from standard Roman Catholic practices. Visitors can notice this distinction in how services are conducted and in the altar arrangements.
The church stands in the hamlet of Corenno Plinio, reachable on foot from Dervio, and is part of the San Carlo Borromeo pastoral community in the Alto Lario deanery of the Archdiocese of Milan. It is a place of worship, so dress modestly and avoid visiting during services.
The three Andreani tombs stand outside, on the churchyard: two flank the portal and the third leans against the wall of the comital castle. Before 1820 this ground was the cemetery of Corenno Plinio, so the monuments mark a burial space that predates the present layout.
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