One of the most significant examples of Romanesque architecture in Brianza.
The most important building in Carate is the wonderful Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Agliate, one of the most significant examples of Romanesque architecture in Brianza.
Edited in the 9th century, it has a beautiful façade in river pebbles, with a fine portal surmounted by two single-lancet windows with the figure of Christ in the lunette, and two side doors.
The interior has a nave and two aisles, with reused stone arches and columns dating from the 4th-5th centuries with inscriptions on the capitals; originally the parish, as well as the adjacent baptistery, must have been covered with 11th-15th century frescoes, while now only minimal portions of frescoed plaster survive on the last two arches of the left aisle and in the barrel vault.
The baptistery, accessed from the side apses, is one of the few examples of a seven-sided baptistery with a small apsidal niche, probably coeval with and equal to the basilica in construction technique; inside, early medieval, 14th- and 15th-century frescoes are preserved. Also of interest are the crypt, built in the 12th century, and the 18th-century sacristy. Towards the end of the 19th century, the Agliate religious complex underwent massive restoration works coordinated by architect Luca Beltrami; the square-shaped bell tower also dates from the same period.
