In the Cressa territory there were two distinct settlements in the Middle Ages: Cressa and Casé (also indicated in the sources as Cascé, Caxe, Caselio, Caxelio) administered by the counts of Pombia and dependent, from an ecclesiastical point of view, on the ancient parish church of Suno. The latter was a village composed mainly of wooded areas and moors with only a few plots intended for cereal crops and fields. Similarly to what happened with many other medieval settlements, it was abandoned, probably during the great crisis of the fourteenth century. To the plague that hit the whole of Europe hard and also heavily scourged the Novara area, with the demographic and economic crisis that followed, there was added a series of war events that led to the destruction of many inhabited centers and the exodus of its inhabitants which converged in nearby towns. The churches of the abandoned villages were left intact by the populations by virtue of the respect and fear of what was sacred. The Oratory of Sant’Antonino, a medieval church dating back to the 11th century, remains the only testimony of the ancient abandoned village of Casé. It was an important chapel for the ancient parish church of Suno where numerous religious functions were held. In 1504 Don Bartolomeo Rozzati established the distribution of blessed bread for the poor of Cressa on the occasion of the solemn feast of Sant’ Antonino. The tradition remained alive until the end of the 19th century: on July 4th the people took a procession to this oratory and here, after mass, the blessing and distribution of bread took place to each family.
The sturdy external wall is made mainly of materials such as pebbles and bricks arranged in a herringbone pattern on fresh mortar. The plan of the church shows a semi-circular Romanesque apse asymmetrical with respect to the longitudinal axis as in the church of San Giulio. Inside there are 2 pointed arches which replace the primitive trusses and some wooden beams and numerous frescoes brought to light thanks to recent restoration work. The most recent work is the altarpiece from 1700 with the apostles frescoed in 1500 on the sides, a painting of Saint Christopher from 1400 and finally the oldest fresco fragments which date back to 1100.
