The Oratory of San Defendente in Gagnone, a small and charming hamlet of Druogno in the Vigezzo Valley, was built at the beginning of the 19th century. The dedication to San Defendente has an important symbolic value in mountain environments, as the Saint was invoked against wolf attacks, bad weather and fires.
The building presents itself to the visitor with a simple and elegant external structure: a high façade with a gabled roof, a large quadrangular window in the middle of the entrance portal, flanked by two grated windows. The organ is a small gem kept inside the oratory, donated by locals in 1840.
The altar, in polychrome marble, was commissioned and built in 1910 to replace the previous altar, in order to house the reliquary with the body of San Defendente. It’s of course not plausible that the body kept in the Oratory of Gagnone is that of the saint who lived in the 4th century, but popular devotion has attributed this identity to the remains, passing it down over time.
Info: circuitodeisanti.it