The Tempio Votivo dei Medici d’Italia (Votive Temple of the Italian Physicians) is located in Duno (Piazza del Santuario). It was built in the late-1930s on the initiative of Italian priest Carlo Cambiano to honor the memory of the Italian physicians dead in war or during other humanitarian emergencies. The church was consecrated on August 25th, 1938, by Alessandro Macchi, then bishop of Como.
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
In the apse you can see a mosaic representing some angels and saints related to medicine or healtcare such as Raphael Archangel, Luke, Cosmas and Damian, Pantaleon, Anthony Maria Zaccaria, etc. There is also the figure of the Saint Unknown Physician!
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
On May 5th, 1940, the adjacent Sacrarium – where the names of the dead physicians are listed – was inaugurated. The names, with the place and date of their death, are followed by the abbreviations P.P. (Pro Patria = for Country) or P.H. (Pro Humanitate = for Humanity). You can find the names of famous physicians such as Augusto Murri, Vittorio Putti, Luigi Devoto, Luigi Mangiagalli, Achille Sclavo, Edoardo Maragliano or, more recent, Carlo Urbani along with many others more or less unknown.
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
The bronze portal is decorated with reliefs depicting scenes related to health arts.
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Under the external portico and in the adjacent little garden you can see many memorial tablets, with lists of benefactors of the Votive Temple, and other monuments.
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
Photos by Luca Borghi (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
In front of the Temple, the 19th century Villa Malcotti hosts, since 2013, the Centro per lo Studio e la Promozione delle Professioni Mediche.
Photos by Luca Borghi @ (July 2016), courtesy of Professor Giuseppe Armocida
– Carlo Cambiano, Duno e il Tempio Votivo dei Medici d’Italia. Prefazione di Giovanni Cenzato, Edizioni d’Arte Pavoni, Milano 1942, pp. 87 (Reprinted in 2004 with a Postface by Giuseppe Armocida and Luca Violoni)
