Confraternita di San Giovanni Battista Decollato

The Chiesa della Confraternita di San Giovanni Decollato stands within the town’s ancient urban fabric.


Typology Building

Period 1380 – 1600

Accessibility No

Visitable Yes

The first information on the Confraternity of San Giovanni Decollato dates back to the apostolic visit carried out by the nuncio Girolamo Scarampi in 1583, where the presence of this brotherhood is reported in the crypt of the Church of San Dalmazzo. In 1680, the rector of the confraternity announced his intention to build his own oratory, closer to the place of execution of the condemned prisoners he witnessed. On 19 May of the same year, the Bishop of Mondovì approved the necessary license for the construction. The construction was of limited dimensions, in fact an expansion was necessary around 1730, while the construction of the bell tower took place in 1750-51.

The church of the Confraternita di San Giovanni Decollato, also known as the Misericordia, overlooks via Roma with a Neoclassical façade juxtaposed with a mighty bell tower. The inside of the chapel is structured on two floors that divide the small room from the presbytery. At the centre of the presbytery, a beautiful Baroque altar stands out in which the nineteenth-century statue of Our Lady of Sorrows emerges, located within a niche, and the canvas depicting the Beheading of St. John, dated towards 1580 and attributed on a stylistic basis to Giovanni Angelo Dolce, a painter from Savigliano, active in the province between the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the following century, who, with his language full of learned quotations, was able to be appreciated at the court of Carlo Emanuele I and in the circle of his noble collaborators , in particular the Tapparellis and the Saluzzos of Verzuolo and Manta.

Conditions of visit

You arrive in front of the church, accessing the old town centre from via Roma.
Situated a few steps from the Civic Tower, the church overlooks via Roma with a neoclassical facade next to a mighty bell tower.
Closed, open upon reservation and during the town’s main events.

Improve

Additional information

Bibliography

  • Walter Cesana, San Dalmazzo, Santa Croce, La Misericordia, cinque secoli di spiritualità, storia e tradizione delle tre Confraternite borgarine , Primalpe, Cuneo, 2013, pp. 225 329.
  • Walter Cesana, Borgo San Dalmazzo, porta delle Alpi marittime. Ambiente, arte, cultura, folklore, tradizioni, curiosità , edizioni tecniche, Robilante, 1997, pp. 48.
  • A cura di Associazione Culturale Pedo Dalmatia, Pedonando per le strade di Borgo San Dalmazzo tra storia e antiche tradizioni , Edizioni Tecniche, Borgo San Dalmazzo, 2013, pp. 15 16.
  • Andrea Levico, Vermenagna e Roya. Le valli delle meraviglie , Primalpe, TipoLitoEuropa, Cuneo, 2007, pp. 71.