The patrons of Sondrio are Saints Gervasius and Protasius, celebrated on 19 June. The town carries them with it: the palms and swords on the municipal coat of arms are the symbols of their martyrdom, while the lily recalls that from the 12th century Sondrio sided with the Guelph faction of the Vitani, at war with the Rusconi of Como.
The saints' church is the collegiate church, one of the oldest in the Valtellina: it headed a wide pieve and was already collegiate in the 12th century. The building and the rough-stone bell tower, of singular shape, are 18th-century work by a fellow citizen, the painter and architect Pietro Ligari.
