Dating to the 17th century, the Church of Porza stands on a hill in the Swiss district of Lugano, and while small in size, the church carries significant historical worth. The church recent underwent a solid-state lighting (SSL) retrofit that was intended to emphasize the beauty of the building without impacting the historic structure in any way. B Light has supplied a number of LED luminaires that have accomplished the goals as nearby photos demonstrate.

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　　The Church of Porza was dedicated to Saint Bernardino from Siena in the Tuscany region of Italy and Saint Martino from Tours in France. The building has a single nave and a bell tower with an octagonal drum. The baroque-neoclassical church is in a spectacular setting with views of the hills in the Lugano area.

　　Lighting sacred and historic sites has been an important early application for the deployment of LED lighting. As was the case in Porza, such lighting projects must not impact the structure for both religious and historic reasons. Small LED form factors and low power requirements have made an SSL retrofit the only option for projects where the desire is to improve the quality of the lighting design. For example, we covered the lighting in the interior of a neo-Gothic church in Germany. And we published a feature-length article on an SSL project at the Durham Cathedral in England.