Description
The origins of the town of Fabbriche di Vallico are closely linked to the founding of iron-working factories by a group of immigrants from Bergamo in the early 14th century. The workers began to settle near the workplace in a location that at the time was named Vallebona, the same location that, since 1214, had been home to a hermitage cared for by Augustinian fathers. In this regard, for the inhabitants of Fabbriche di Vallico there was no need to have a parish church as long as they could make use of that of the hermitage. When that structure was decommissioned in 1461, the faithful obtained permission to build a new house of worship: this permission came around the beginning of the 16th century, and in 1520 the parish church of San Giacomo in Fabbriche di Vallico was consecrated. The small building, with a rectangular plan and semicircular apse, was born without a bell tower, which was built about two centuries later, in 1760, near the left side wall of the presbytery area. What makes this religious building very unique is the strong asymmetry of the front, and thus of the church, as can be seen from the position of the portal noticeably shifted to the right. The most probable hypothesis is that in the 18th century the left aisle was extended to the edge of the path that runs along it. The interior decorative apparatus is of interesting workmanship, as far as the side altars and the vaulting are concerned dating from the second half of the 18th century, while the pictorial decoration of the aisles is a recent work made, together with the "Venetian-style" flooring and the consolidation of the bell tower.
