Religious Heritage

Church of Saints Pietro and Paolo of Pessano

Thu, 22 Sep 2016 10:21:24 GMT

The village of Pessano which like Paerno, contributed to populating the hamlet of Bollengo, in 1250, quickly disappeared, while the Romanesque church of the hamlet protected by the Cathedral Chapter of Ivrea, has been preserved to this day.

The bell tower is located centrally to the façade, being a clocher porche (bell tower porch); from here the single apsed nave is accessed, divided into two bays by a wide arc; on the walls there are the remains of frescoes dating back to the fifteenth century and an ancient section of lattice work with a geometric crosshatch design. On the right side of the building there are two more recently added presbytery rooms. The bell tower is spread over six floors and has five background paintings surrounded by pilasters and suspended arches; the slit openings on the third floor are located in the upper part a single light window and two mullioned windows with two lights.

Church of San Giacomo di Montestrutto

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 12:51:04 GMT

The church is located on a rocky spur next to the Montestrutto castle, it dominates the plane and the town below. The building with a single room, with dating that remains uncertain, for certain aspects reminds of the Maddalena of Burolo (among them bell tower placement next to the facade). The current church still keeps traces of antique frescos that ornate the first part of the internal nave and the original facade, while the rest is a result of a subsequent intervention. In the XV Century the building was expanded by extending the area of the presbytery that is slanted compared to the central body, since the workers were forced to follow the shape of the rocky spur. The same bell tower, on the right corner of the facade, orignal at first side, has been raised and handled as has the rest of the structure.

Church of Santo Stefano del Monte

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 12:57:25 GMT

The church of Santo Stefano in Candia was build in the XI or XII century. Along with the duomo and the Fruttuaria abbey, it constitutes one of the main testimonies of Romanesque architecture in the Canavese area.

Placed on the top of hill overlooking the town residential area, in a panoramic position from which it dominates the Canavese Morainic basin, has been subject to significant changes throughout the centuries.
The first documental information regarding the church date back to 1177, thanks to a bull written when the church and the adjacent priory became property of the canonical of the Ospiziodei Santi Nicolao and Bernardo di Monte Giove (Gran San Bernardo)
The establishment date most likely is even earlier, probably in the XI century, at least for the most antique portions, such as the central area of the facade, that rested against a bell tower that has since then been lost, placed on the side compared to the entrance. The hypothesis is that on the hill dedicated to it there were already remains of early-Christian and even Roman buildings.
Inside the church the three naves are divide by walls with arches sustained by robust quadrangular cross section pillars. At the end of the central nave, using a stone staircase with thirteen steps, you can access the elevated presbytery.
Maybe the most suggestive part of the church is the crypt, located under the presbytery and most likely dating back to the period when the central apse was rebuilt. It is held up by thin stone columns with used capitals, most likely coming from the primitive parish church of Candia or the related Baptistry.

Ciucarun - The bell tower of San Martino di Paerno

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 12:47:52 GMT

The suggestive bell tower elevates solitary in the middle of Serra d’Ivrea, where the village of Paerno once was.

In 1250 Ivrea founded the fortified village of Bollengo and ordered the populations from Pessano, Paerno and Bagnolo to establish there. The village of Paerno decayed quickly and only the church and the bell tower remained: the first was demolished in 1731, leaving the second as the only evidence of the past.

The “Ciucarun”, as it is called from the locals, is six floors high, highlighted by five frames made of hanging arches that connect the angular pilasters; from the bottom upwards, it has the typical succession of openings: slots, single and double mullioned windows, all of them walled up except those on the last floor. At the base, on the West side, there is an arch opening visible, now walled up, which was one of the access points to the bell tower, and traces of walls confirm the presence of the connected church.

Madonna di Miralta Sanctuary

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 12:45:25 GMT

The small church, entitled to the Assumpt Virgin Mary, is located on the ridge of the hill with the same name, at the extreme South of the town towards Villareggia, where the first residential settlements took place. There are numerous references, starting from the X Century, to the village of Miralta (or Miralda), feuded by the De Bondoni family and from the XIII Century progressively abandoned by its inhabitants. Today the sanctuary, dating back to the X Century, is the only surviver of the antique Medieval town centre, now completely disappeared. The single nave building, with a bell tower on a side, still preserved - at least in the back part - the Romanesque building, despite the many renovations and the deep transformations which took place especially with the twentieth Century addition and the building of the neoclassical pronao (colonnade) on the facade.

San Bernardino Church

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 13:36:09 GMT

According to tradition and historical sources, the San Bernardino building complex was built between 1455 and 1465, it was dedicated to the sain from Siena that touched Ivrea in 1418, during itinerant preaching aimed at containing the spread of new heretical ideas. Once the adequate site was fount not far outside of the city, construction started the 14th of September 1455. Building works were finished in 1457, but the church, having only one square nave with cross-shaped vaults, was subject to enlargement works to contain the great influx of followers, which gave the church the shape of a conventual church.

The entire conventual area, passed on to private citizens in 1805, was purchased by the Engineer Camilo Olivetti in 1907 who adapted the structure as his own residence and developed his company in the adjacent land. Between 1955 and 1958, the building complex was involved in important works that modified its appearance, especially the convent, no longer used as a private residence but intended to house the headquarters Olivetti company social services. Restoration works were started in order to bring the church back to 15th century architectural structure and, at the same time, aimed at restoring and preserving the internal paintings.

The church houses one of the most important 15th century testimonies of Piedmont: the painting cycle of the Life and Passion of Christ painted by Gian Martino Spanzotti on the dividing wall of the San Bernardino church, the side that was once reserved to the lay faithful. The work, dated between 1480 and 1490, consists of twenty scenes placed around the great frame of the Crucifixion, of the paintings in the two central pendentives showing the universal judgement and hell, of the two pillars below, painted with images of San Bernardino and of the two side pendentives reproducing the expulsion from the earthly paradise and purgatory.

The Olivetti Spilled’Oro Association receives employees and retired workers of the Olivetti Group that have completed 25 years of work with the company, given a gold pin in remembrance of the gift that the founder Camilo Olivetti gave to his wife when the one-thousandth copy of the first typewriter came out. Among the various cultural activities, it handles opening and visits to the San Bernardino Church.

Culture Department

Ivrea Municipality

San Gaudenzio Church

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 13:43:04 GMT

The San Gaudenzio church is on the right bank of the Dora Baltea, beyond the Borghetto district, in an area that was once countryside. When it was built, the small church stood solitary on a small high ground located outside of the Ivrea residential area. It was built between 1716 and 1724, on ruins of a fortification called Castelletto (1705). Superintendence was assigned to the Prevost of the Cathedral don Lorenzo Pinchia and the Municipality, along with the generous gifts of citizens, made it possible to finance the construction. Ten years after the construction of the central body, the sacristy and the room above was added. In 1742 the elegant bell tower began to be built. It is documented that the building had strong popular fervor, testimony of the devotion to the figure of San Gaudenzio, born in Ivrea in the IV century AD, period of the initial Christianisation of Piedmont. The architect that designed is not known. There have been different hypothesis on Bernardo Vittone, however, due to his young age, it is probably only an intervention related to the works on the sacristy and the bell tower. The more accredited theory, despite not being documented, is the paternity of architect Carlo Andrea Guibert, whose presence in Ivrea in the first years of 1700 is testimonied by other intervention, such as the San Lorenzo Church and the Bishop’s Palace. Luca Rossetti from Orta in 1738 painted the internal frescos, in the figurative and quadrature parts. Mastro Agostino rama instead executed the stuccos.

Visits to the San Gaudenzio Church are handled by the CroassdelBorghet Association, a cultural association with headquarters in Borghetto that is responsible for keeping alive events related to the San Grato district. Exhibits are organised inside the church.

Times: visits upon booking

San Grato Chapel and Hermitage

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 12:54:12 GMT

Built on the ParajAuta hill, the small church dates back to the XII Century and, initially dedicated to San Giovanni, in the 16th Century it was dedicated to San Grato, invoked during plagues. Originally the only nave was divided into two spans, anther one was added in the XVII Century and the bell tower was built subsequently. Next to the chapel there is a building (hermitage) used until the beginning of the 20th Century by the hermit, who was in charge of cleaning the church, farming the vineyard and taking care of the adjacent woods.

The structure externally displays a plastered Baroque facade and the rectangular exposed stone apse as side walls. Inside there are preserved frescos and among them, on the sides of the altar, a work from the 15th century attributed to Giacomino da Ivrea that portrays Saint Peter with the keys to Paradise and Saint Andrew with the cross of the same name.

San Lorenzo Parish Church and Baptistery

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 12:52:10 GMT

The architectural complex of San Lorenzo (VIII-IX Century) is considered one of the most important of Piedmont. The church, with a single arched ceiling room, it has a rectangular apse and two chapels, destined to house sarcophagus, which stick out on the side as a transept. Only during a subsequent period the left arm of the transept and the baptistery were connected using a hallway where two other sarcophaguses are buried. Many frescos, which can be dated to the era the church was built in up to the end of the XV Century, are spread throughout the inside of the church, among them the cycle of frescos of the Avogadro chapel, in the right wing of the transept. The baptistry, with an octagonal centre plan, internally is divided into eight recesses with one of them connected to a square apse on the East with a small bell tower, added in a later era, at the centre of the vault.

San Michele Arcangelo Church

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 12:43:18 GMT

Of late Roman origin, the church was rebuilt in Romanesque era (XII Century) by inverting its orientation. The naves were separated by quadrangular pillars and the deep apse anded in a semi-circle; the above-elevated presbytery extended along the first bay of the central nave and was accessible through a stone staircase. The building has lived, starting from the fifteenth century, different transformation phases that only spared the bell tower, inserted in the south side. Today the bell tower still keeps its Romanesque appearance with its hanging arches decoration with a brick frame above. Inside, on the side of the central nave, a circular artifact was found that identifies with the Baptismal font (tank) dating back to the primitive church (VI Century), currently visible after the recent restoration works.

Santa Maria Church

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 12:49:02 GMT

The church, located on an embarkment that dominates the plane, is delimited by the remains of a Medieval era stone city wall. The current building is the result of radical transformations completed in the 18th and 19th Centuries; only a portion of the inside wall remains of the Romanesque building, presenting a fragment of a fresco from the 15th Century representing the Virgin Mary and Saint Caterina. Intact in its Romanesque forms instead is the beautiful bell tower made in local stone, its origins can be placed at the end of the XI Century. The body is divided into six floors, with a regular succession of slots, single and double mullioned windows and two rows of triple mullioned windows all around, starting from the bottom, enclosed by sections crowned by hanged arches. The capitals of the double and triple mullioned windows are held up by stone columns, some of them decorated at the ends with simple incisions.

Santa Maria Maddalena Church

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 12:42:03 GMT

The church rises on a rock outcropping of Serra d’Ivrea, close to the community in the Burolo municipality with the same name. The structure consists of three buildings: the church with a single rectangular room, finishing with a semi-circular apse; a room on the right, used as a sacristy today; the bell tower next to the facade with double access doors, connected to the other two sides by a wall. The wall between the bell tower and the sacristy delimits a small internal courtyard where it is assumed that there was an antique nave next to the church that has since disappeared. On the North side there is a walled late-roman tombstone (440 AD) that commemorates the shopkeeper Basilio. In the Sacristy there is a fresco that can be attributed to Domenico dellaMarca of Ancona workshop (XV century), showing Christ crucified between two penitent feminine figures of which one may be Mary Magdalene who the building is named after.

Santa Marta Church

Thu, 22 Sep 2016 12:41:55 GMT

The church, built during the second half of the 15h century as desired by the Santa Marta brotherhood, a governing institution established in 1460, it was rebuilt towards the end of the 16th century.

In 1622, at the right of the entrance, the oratory had already been built where the brothers met on non-work days to recital of the office of the Blessed Virgin Mary and where sacred furnishings and ecclesiastic vestments. Subsequent changes and additions moulded the entire structure according to the Baroque style that was still visible. The current facade of the church, in its essential lines, remain what it was in the middle of the 17th century, adorned with eight columns, fur upper ones and four lower ones. The oratory kept a small quadrangular dome in the centre with a cross-shaped vault above it, probably the same dome already described by the Bishop Asinari during his parochial visit in 1651. Historical documents witness how the entire devotional complex was richly adorned, both in the church altars and in the adjacent oratory; today the furnishings and the painting are the only remains of an altar and traces of frescos from the presbytery and certain lunettes in the side walls of the oratory. The sacred place, definitively closed to worship after the second world war, was purchased in the 1970’s for a symbolic amount by the Ivrea Municipality who restored it and set it up as a conference room. One last thing to point out is that the beautiful Baroque church door has now been paced at the entrance of the parochial church of San Bernando D’Ivrea.

Santo Stefano di Sessano Church

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 12:39:58 GMT

The church is what remains of the Sessano village in Chiaverano, located on the rocky promontory East of the town and probably abandoned after a landslide. The building (XI Century) is contemporary with other churches in the area that have in common the peculiarity of the bell tower (clocher-porche) located at the centre of the facade.

The current church is single nave with three spans and end apse where a sacristy was added (at the South) in Baroque era. Outside of the semi-cylindrical apse there are four pilasters that divide it into three fields, where the same amount of mullioned windows; on the top there are twelve aligned recesses with exposed brick arches as well as a sawtooth frame with a rock sheet roof above it. Internally the apse has precious frescos from the XI Century: at the centre of the bowl-shaped vault the Christ surrounded by the symbols of the four evangelists and below fourteen figures of Apostles and Saints.

Synagogue

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 13:38:29 GMT

The Synagogue is in the historical centre of Ivrea, under the castle walls, where the Jewish ghetto was officially instituted in 1725. The current building from the 19th century was obtained by adapting a pre-existent structure, it has two anonymous facades, East towards via Peana and West on Via Quattro Martiri, that camouflage themselves perfectly in the urban fabric, not making it possible to identify the existence of a place of prayer from the outside. Even the access door, framed with a simple stone frame and located in via Quattro Martiri, blends in with the shops. Only the semi-circle window, made more precious thanks to the coloured glass with bright blue and red tones, towards via Peana, suggests the presence of a building with an intended use that is different from residential.

In the building there are two distinct synagogues: a smaller one, established as a winter temple, that still remains available to the Jewish community, and the larger rectangular one, transferred to the Municipality of Ivrea in 1980 in exchange for the restructuring of the entire complex. The large synagogue, covered by a tall arched ceiling, has columns and pilasters along the perimeter walls. The coffered decoration with ornamental acanthus leaves and marble imitation remind of other canavese public and religious buildings, however the distributional organisation is significantly different. The prayer area still has benches arranged in two parallel rows, which were destined to men according to Jewish tradition, and the gallery, reserved to women. In the wall in front of the entrance you can find the tevà, a platform from which the Holy Scriptures were read and public prayers were recited, and the aròn, a sacred cabinet where the Torah scrolls were kept. In the small synagogue an imposing Torah Ark from the 19th century, in carved wood, golden and decorate after the death of Carlo Alberto.

Culture Department

Ivrea Municipality

The Santa Maria Assunta Cathedral

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 13:34:30 GMT

The Santa Maria cathedral, with is thousand year history, is without a doubt the most important place of worship of the Ivrea city, built in a relevant position, where it is hypothesised the roman acropolis was. The most antique part of the crypt, of carolingian influence, it is characterised by a ring shape, with typical cross-shaped vaults supported by thin columns and half conical capitals. The most recent part of the crypt (XII and XIII century) is distinguished thanks to its capitals with vegetation or zoomorphic decorations and wall operations.

There are also frescos from different eras and among the subjects represented you find two Warrior Saints, San Gaudenzio, an Annunciation and a work attributed to Giacomino da Ivrea representing the Madonna with Child among saints Cristoforo and Antonio Abate During the excavation campaign in the Nineties, the great round pillars from the Roman church were brought back to the light. The early Christian building, probably built in the IV century, was rebuilt around the year One-thousand, upon request of the Bishop Warmondo, according to a layout that is typical for three nave Ottonian buildings with counterposed apses, where only the western one remains. Between the 15th and the 16th century a new sacristy was built, containing paintings by Defendente Ferrari. The current look of the inside of the cathedral is a result of interventions mid 18th century, such as building the Santissimo Sacramento and Crocifisso chapel and the Sacrament Chapel, built in 1761 in honor of San Savino, patron saint of Ivrea. The Crocifisso Chapel was desired by the bishop OttavioPochettini, who contacted the architect Giuseppe Martinez in 1786 in order to obtain a homogenous style for the interiors and particular the nave. The last important transformation of the cathedral was the expansion towards the East of the span and demolition of the 16th century facade.