The first architect of the restoration is indicated in the register of the Milan Lodge, where on April 30, 1396, Magister Lorenzo degli Spazi de Laino in Val d'Intelvi is allowed to leave the works at Milan to be chief architect at Como, "deliberarunt quod licentietur Magister Laurentius de Spatiis ad eundum Cumas pro laborerio Ecclesie majoris civitatis Cumarum ad requisitionem comunis et hominum dicte civitatis Cumarum." He had not long entered on office when Gian Galeazzo died, and Como was again involved in a fight for freedom with Malatesta and the Visconti. In 1416 the Como people had to swear allegiance to Milan, and then Duke Filippo Maria Visconti allowed the works to go on. On February 19, 1439, Pietro da Bregia near Como was elected master architect, and he continued Lorenzo de Spazi's work. He changed the plan so as to bring the façade in a line with the Broletta and tower of the fortress, which altogether made an imposing mass of buildings; very interesting as displaying at once the Comacine work in civil, military, and ecclesiastical architecture. The Broletta is a particularly good specimen of their civil architecture, of about A.D. 1000, though it loses in proportion owing to the filling up of the lower level on which it was built, so that the bases of the columns are completely buried.
The Cathedral and Broletta at Como.
CHAPTER V
THE VENETIAN LINK
THE VENETIAN LODGE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
The connection of the Comacines of Longobardic times with Venice, through the powerful Lombard Dukes of Friuli, and the Patriarchs of Aquileja, their metropolitan bishops, has already been touched upon; and we have mentioned the Patriarch Fortunatus for whom the Masonic Guild built the churches of Grado and Torcello. The Comacines had, in the eighth century, also built the Baptistery of Calixtus at Cividale, and had sculptured the altar of Duke Pemmo in Friuli; in the twelfth century they rebuilt the Duomo of Cividale for the Patriarch Pellegrino.... This connection was still further strengthened, when in 1311 the Visconti conquered and exiled from Milan the Torriani family, their rivals in the Signory there, who retired to Friuli, where they soon acquired supreme power. Two of the family, Raimondo and Pagano della Torre, had previously been successively Patriarchs of Aquileja, and in 1317, Gastone, the exiled Archbishop of Milan, succeeded Pagano. A second Pagano and a Ludovico Torriani followed him. The Torriani were from Valsassina near Como, and would consequently have had more interest in the Comacine Guild than any other, if other there were; in fact the tombs of the Torriani at Primaluna and at Chiaravalle show unmistakable signs of Comacine work. At Sacile in the Friuli district the ancient church with three naves, built in 1400, can show documents proving its architects to have been Beltramo and Antonio, both of Como, and who form a link with the Roman Lodge. The church of Gemona, on the mountains near Tagliamento, was built by Giovanni Bono, another familiar Comacine name. The choir is in transition style, i.e. semi-Gothic. The two aisles are divided from the nave by a grand colonnade. The façade is of the style of Siena and Orvieto, with cusped arches under triangular gables; it has a large finely-traceried rose window in the centre, and a profusion of statues. At Venzone, also near Tagliamento, is an ancient Lombard church with characteristic sculptures, built in 1200. Here is a holy water vase of a later period, of extremely fine and finished sculpture, signed Bernardino da Bissone, 1500. Bernardino also sculptured another holy water vase in the Duomo of Tolmezzo, and the beautiful door of the church of Tricesimo. All these works prove the close connection of our guild with the Patriarchs, who ruled over Venice as well as Friuli.