Church of Sts. Catherine, Bernard and Francis Xavier

La Church of Sts. Catherine, Bernard and Francis Xavier is located in the central square of Cardano and was built in 1744.

The church is also dedicated to St. Francis Xavier, the Apostle to the Indies. A student in Paris, Francis Xavier met St. Ignatius of Loyola and became one of the founding members of the Society of Jesus. He is considered one of the greatest missionaries of modern times, bringing the Gospel into contact with the great Eastern cultures and adapting it with wise apostolic sense to the temperaments of the various peoples. In his missionary journeys, Francis Xavier touched India, Japan, and died while preparing to spread the message of Christ in China.

Before the present church was built, an oratory already existed, and the parish priest of the time was required to celebrate Mass there at least once a week.
The church was desired and financed by the Guaitis (now Guaita) family, whose family chapel is located in the adjacent cemetery.

The building has a single nave, with a high altarpiece depicting the patron saints of the church, made at a time before the building itself was constructed. On the walls of the nave are two beautiful paintings depicting St. Francis Xavier and St. Charles Borromeo.

In the first chapel on the left is the Bagatti Valsecchi family mausoleum, with the plaster Angel of the Resurrection by sculptor Antonio Tantardini, dated 1856. This sculpture is one of the most significant neoclassical testimonies of the ecomuseum area.