Ferno, Fèrnu in the local dialect, is a town in the province of Varese. Its arms carry no towers and no saints: a sky-coloured field, with a burning tree trunk rooted in a grassy plain, all in natural colours. Milan Malpensa airport straddles seven municipalities, Ferno among them. Of the old mill only a ruin survives, built like a farmstead, with living quarters, a portico for loading, stables and millstones.
The oldest building is the church of Santa Maria, Romanesque of the fourteenth century and enlarged in the sixteenth: medieval frescoes remain in the nave, over the high altar hangs a triptych of the Madonna and Child with saints by a follower of Gaudenzio Ferrari. In plague years it served as a lazaret, food passed through small windows now walled up; it stands facing the airport. San Martino, the medieval parish church, was rebuilt in the late seventeenth century and keeps an anonymous canvas of the saint sharing his cloak with a beggar.
Risotto alla Milanese
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Next up: Saint Martin, patron of Ferno together with Saint Anthony the Abbot, Wednesday 11 November
Nearest airport: Milano Malpensa, 3 km away
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📅 Every year, on 11 November; the town also venerates Saint Anthony the Abbot
Ferno celebrates Saint Martin on 11 November, in the Church of San Martino; the town also venerates Saint Anthony the Abbot, as recalled by the parish's dedication to San Martino Vescovo e Antonio Abate.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Ferno, but an easy day trip away.
