Between a silo on the horizon and a row of villas, between a dual carriageway and the Malpensa highway, in a surviving meadow the chapel of the Madonna della Neve, in Arnate.
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The Madonna della Neve in Arnate 4 out of 5
Although it is not a real church, the chapel still stands out well, isolated in the grass. «There was once a spring here from which water came out” tells Aldo Bosello, resident in the area since 1951 on the border between the territory of Gallarate and that of Cardano. «The chapel is linked to one legend has it that the fresco of the Madonna was left by the waters of the Arno torrent», which flows in the area. There is certainly a relationship with water, in an area of irrigated meadows, where the groundwater rose spontaneously.
«They are not just legends: the source was really there, there are numerous testimonies” continues Bosello. That launches the appeal for the establishment of a valorization committeewith the aim also of looking for and bring to light the source of water that may have been hidden from an unexpected cement spill near the building. Bosello also illustrated the idea to the former parish priest of Arnate – who comes from the same family that had the chapel built – and to the councilor Germano Dall’Igna, from Arnate.
Entrepreneur in the diagnostics sector (he invented an innovative – at 89 years old – goes to mow the entrance path of the chapel, still frequented today by some Arnate faithful for the recitation of the rosary, especially in the month of May. Between a plane taking off and the traffic on the adjacent via Schuster – opened in the nineties – you can hear prayers ringing out in this surviving remnant of the countryside to the somewhat chaotic urbanization of the area.
Bosello also created a panel on another project that he would like to see realized: a series of murals to be painted on the blind sides of the chapel, according to a project which was the degree thesis of the young Noemi Roccellato theBrera Academy.
THE three murals represent history and legends linked to this small religious building: they would take up the fresco of the Virgin Mary, they would quote an apologue about an unbeliever who tried to heal his sick canal with water. And finally they would celebrate the “miracle” of the August snow, linked precisely to the anniversary of the Madonna della Neve.
