Subsidiary of the parish of Santa Grata Inter Vites, the small Church of St. Erasmus can be considered one of the most fascinating in Bergamo.
Right from the façade, which is mostly made of irregular live stone, it is striking for its ancient and bare appearance.
The entrance portal is rectangular, flanked by two small windows and surmounted by a fresco depicting the saint and the Virgin, underlying in turn a large window.
On the wall, the round arches of three ancient entrances, later walled up, can still be clearly seen.
The church also shows simplicity from an architectural point of view: in fact, it possesses a rectangular plan with a single nave, covered by a very low vault.
Inside one can admire a neoclassical altar, a painted wooden choir, remnants of 15th-century frescoes but, above all, a series of early 19th-century canvases depicting episodes from the saint’s life, in stucco frames.
The pilasters and other decorative frames are in faux marble.
Finally, on the ceiling of the vault, frescoes, also from the 19th century, simulate the presence of a dome through a trompe-l’oeil effect.
Also part of the building are a small square bell tower, located to the northeast, and a sacristy.
Under the church there are also underground rooms, at ground level on the side of St. Erasmus alley.
