The Basilica of San Carpoforo stands in the area of the terrible martyrdom of 303-305. Tradition has it that a number of soldiers of the Theban Legion were fleeing Milan, including Carpoforo, St Alexander and St Fedele (who was given the task of Christianising the region by Bishop Materno), when they were captured and beheaded at castel Baradello, where it seems there was a place of veneration to the god Mercury. A tombstone seems to attest to the burial of these heroes of the faith here.