Former Confraternity of Santa Croce

The former Confraternity is in the old town centre of Vernante not far from the Parish Church, overlooking a small open space that faces via Vittorio Veneto.


Typology Building

Period 1380 – 1600

Accessibility No

Visitable Yes

The association of the Holy Cross is attested in Vernante from the end of the sixteenth century; the church of the former confraternity represents one of the main historical-monumental complexes of the country. The building was probably built in place of a pre-existing structure at the beginning of the 18th century and represents a significant example of a religious Baroque building, whose structural and architectural lines are conceived with senses of particular aesthetic intention. The interior decoration, with scenes of the Passion, was made by the painter Giovanni Battista Cordero. Inside, the building is characterized by a sober and linear layout. On the side walls there are scenes of the Passion painted by Giovanni Battista Cordero of Vernante. The back wall of the presbytery is decorated with a beautiful altar frescoed with great perspective ability in which the exaltation of the cross is inserted, always as a fresco. On the counter-façade, the gallery has been transformed into a control room.

Long deconsecrated, at the end of the 1970s the Confraternity was transformed and turned into a cinema. To this end, a new side entrance hall has been created with an annexed service block and an external staircase with an emergency exit function. In 2004 a recovery project was implemented which led to the philological recovery of the spaces and its transformation into a multi-purpose room. The building includes, in addition to the Confraternity, an underlying basement floor that after the works mentioned above became the base of the Attilio Mussino Museum.

Conditions of visit

From SP20 take Vicolo molino sottano; alternatively take via Umberto I downstream from the centre.
The entrance to the building is a few metres from the SP20, the easiest way to park is on the SP20 roadside.
Open during events.

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Additional information

Bibliography

  • a cura di Diocesi di Cuneo, Parrocchia San Nicolao, Vernante Benvenuto!Benvenuto!, edizioni Diocesi di Cuneo, 2009.

Useful links

tautemi.it