Mesero’s most important historic building is the parish church of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, cited as Santa Maria in the 13th century Liber Notitiae Sanctorum Mediolani by Goffredo da Bussero, but completely renewed from that era. Today the church appears in the 18th century form which was superimposed on the 16th century nucleus. The interior shows evident signs left by years of abandonment and work is in progress for the consolidation and conservation the church. The necessity of removing the entire pavement provided the occasion for an archaeological investigation. This identified three construction phases, all within the area which is today occupied by the choir and presbytery. The first, pre-Romanesque phase, is characterised by two sections of wall forming the south and east limits of a primitive structure which, however, did not produce any secure dating elements. A second phase, generically ascribed to the Romanesque period, was constituted by a church with a single nave and semicircular apse. The base of an altar, a beautiful terracotta floor and fragments of a finely made fresco, found in the demolition layers, belong to this phase. The third, Renaissance, phase was that of a larger church whose presbytery was built on the razed Romanesque church. The new apse, although maintaining the same proportions as the previous one, is no longer semicircular but trapezoidal, “sewn” onto the razed walls of the earlier apse by four pilasters which articulate its sides. (Laura Simone Zopfi, Monica Motto)