Baptistry, Romanesque baptistry in Varese, Italy.

The Baptistery of San Giovanni Battista in Varese is a tall, narrow rectangular building with a gabled facade framed by two pilasters and topped by a 14th-century aedicule with a statue of Saint John the Baptist. Inside are two quadrangular rooms on an east-west axis: the larger western hall for baptism and a smaller eastern presbytery. At the centre of the main hall stands a large octagonal monolithic font carved by a Campione master between the 13th and 14th centuries, with reliefs of the Baptism of Christ and the Apostles left unfinished.

A hexagonal baptistery with an immersion font stood here in the 7th–9th centuries. Between the 12th and 13th centuries it was replaced by the present Romanesque building, which kept the older square immersion basin and received a large octagonal font above it, along with fresco decoration.

The octagonal baptismal font at the centre of the main hall was carved by a Campionese master between the 13th and 14th centuries; its eight faces show the Baptism of Christ and the Apostles, left unfinished. The oldest fresco inside, a Madonna del Latte on the left wall of the presbytery, dates to 1320 and is attributed to the Master of the Fissiraga Tomb.

The baptistry stands behind the bell tower of the Basilica of San Vittore, in Varese's historic centre. Entry is through the single slightly splayed portal on the facade, which faces the basilica; the smaller pointed-arch door on the south side is walled up. The interior is divided into two rooms on an east-west axis, with the octagonal font in the centre of the larger western hall.

The octagonal font inside was carved by a Campione master between the 13th and 14th centuries; its eight faces show the Baptism of Christ and the Apostles, left unfinished. It stands above an older square immersion basin kept from the earlier church.