On the hilltop of the Calvary (555 m a.s.l.) above San Michele Appiano there is a lovely church, a popular hiking destination
Image gallery: Calvary Church of the Holy Cross
The chapel, which rises on a hill above the village of San Michele, is a Calvary Church, that's to say a church which concludes a Via Crucis. The sacred building, erected by Franciscan monks between 1718 and 1720 on the Gleif Hill, is known as Gleif Church or, more officially, as Calvary Church of the Holy Cross on the Gleif. At that time, many Calvaries were realised as sign of the Counter-Reformation. The building was planned by the famous Italian master builder Giuseppe Carlo Delai.
The main nave, built on a simple floor plan of 10 x 10 m, is completed by the choir and two turrets with red domes. Inside, the Calvary Church features a rib vault, stucco embellishments and Baroque altars: The picture of the high altar is a work of the Tyrolean painter Matthias Pussjäger (1654 - 1734). The Calvary Church of the Holy Cross is a listed building - an easy walk leads from the centre of San Michele to the church.
