San Benedetto in Val Perlana on foot from Mezzegra: the Romanesque abbey at the head of the valley
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Above Ossuccio the Val Perlana climbs towards Monte Galbiga, and where two side valleys meet stands an 11th-century Romanesque church, with its bell tower and what remains of a monastery. This is San Benedetto in Val Perlana.
You can walk there from Mezzegra, and it is the longest of the three walks starting at the residence gate. Below you will find what we measured and what we did not, and the history of the place taken from official sources, the Lombardy Region's cultural heritage catalogue and the abbey's own website, with the dates they agree on.
The route: what we measured and what we did not
Our track starts at the residence gate and measures 4.3 kilometres to the end of the San Benedetto road. The first kilometre is shared with the walk to the Sacro Monte di Ossuccio: here too you start by going downhill, then head up the valley. Between the lowest point of the track, at 232 metres, and the highest, at 790 metres at the end of the road, there are 558 metres of difference in height.
From there to the abbey there is a last stretch we have not measured: according to the abbey's website it is a narrow, steep path that crosses the valley on a wooden bridge. That is why we give neither the distance to the church nor walking times, for the reason explained in the article on choosing your first trail: they depend on your pace more than on the distance.
The abbey's website gives two ways up: the historic one, starting in Lenno at the abbey of Acquafredda, and the one that climbs from Ossuccio past the Soccorso sanctuary.
An 11th-century church that has survived almost intact
According to the Lombardy Region's catalogue, the church was built in the 11th century: the first document to mention it dates from 1083, and by 1090 the monastery was already active. Its isolated position meant the building kept its original forms almost unchanged, while the monastery and its outbuildings decayed far more.
It has a nave and two aisles ending in three semicircular apses, exposed walls of Moltrasio stone and roofs covered with stone slabs. The most decorated part is the apse area: the main apse has small arches and half-columns.
Nine centuries in a few lines
The Benedictine community did not last long. At the end of the 13th century the monks left San Benedetto; in the 15th century the monastery was suppressed and united with the abbey of Acquafredda in Lenno, and in the following centuries the church and monastery passed into private hands and were used for farming. In 1950 the church was closed to worship, and it reopened eight years later after a first round of restoration.
In the 1960s the Botta family bought the whole property and brought it back together. In 1987 they lent it to an association set up to bring it back to life, which restored the church and the farm buildings between 1989 and 1997; the association was dissolved in 2011. On 3 September 2020 the family donated everything to the Diocese of Como, through the Soccorso sanctuary, the same one that stands at the top of the Sacro Monte di Ossuccio and that now looks after the abbey.
When you can go inside
The church opens on set days, published on the abbey's website, sanbenedettoinvalperlana.it. For 2026 the calendar lists, from April to September, the second and fourth Sunday and the third Saturday of each month. Outside that period, so in October too, plan on seeing it from the outside.
The first of May is a fixed date: every year the parishes of Ossuccio and Lenno walk up to the abbey for Mass.
What to know before you go
The abbey's website recommends hiking boots, and it is advice worth taking seriously, especially for the last stretch. October is a good time to walk the valley: our page on the lake through the seasons says so for the Val Perlana in particular, when the air dries out and the views become sharper. At check-in we tell you what the path is like that week, and the other walks that start from here are on our hiking page.
In short
- San Benedetto in Val Perlana: Romanesque church from the 11th century, documented since 1083
- From the residence: 4.3 km measured to the end of the road, then a stretch of path we have not measured
- 558 metres between the lowest point (232 m) and the highest (790 m) of the track
- Owned by the Diocese of Como since 2020, looked after by the Soccorso sanctuary
- Church open on set days from April to September (calendar on the abbey's website), Mass every year on the first of May
This is not a walk to improvise, but at the head of the valley stands a church almost a thousand years old that kept its original forms precisely because nobody ever passed by on the way to somewhere else.
