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Biella- Church of San Giuseppe
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Show to visit in the Biella area: |
 The Church of San Giuseppe is a small church in Biella located at the beginning of the Gorgomoro path, which runs along the Oropa stream and continues towards the famous Sanctuary. The small complex belongs to the nearby parish of San Cassiano.
From the outside the church is barely recognizable, since the façade looks more like that of a villa, while the back is like that of an old residential building (although, looking better, it is possible to notice that on the highest point of the façade there is a cross, while at the back there are two rough openings recalling a cross in the shape).
The church was built only relatively recently around a votive chapel with an octagonal dome built in 1644 (as engraved in one of the stones at its base), in which, then as today, there was a spectacular baroque scenographic apparatus (completely renovated in the eighteenth century), depicting the agony and the death of St. Joseph resting on a life-size bed surrounded by Jesus and Mary and some life-size angels (Fig. 3).
The scene is dominated by clouds, also in polychrome terracotta, populated by putti and singing angels, single or in groups.
At the center of the upper half of the scene, the figure of God the Blessing Father stands out of the clouds, with a golden globe (the world) in a hand and a dove symbol of the Holy Spirit in front of him.
These sacred scenes of very theatrical taste ("tableaux vivants"), represented by vividly colored life-size statues, are inserted in the tradition of the "Sacred Mountains" widespread in the area of Piedmont and Lombardy, driven by the Counter-Reformation starting from '600, like the nearby famous Sacred Mountains of Oropa and Varallo.
Starting from 1881, the ancient Sacellum (the votive chapel) was gradually incorporated into the current church, taking on today's shape: on the left of the Sacellum the nave with the high altar, the votive temple in the center, preceded by an ambulatory overlooking the square with a portal, and on the right side an aisle dedicated to the Virgin of Oropa in memory of the 4th centenary of the coronation of 1920. Then there are the sacristy, a small bell tower, an internal garden and the former caretaker's house now home to the Pia Union. The Church of San Giuseppe in Biella is located on the Riva hill, on a spur of living rock and visible from the streets below, from the bridge over the Cervo river, from the old wool factories and from the Chiavazza district.
Inside, among other things, there are among other things a painting behind the main altar that recalls the scene represented in the votive chapel and on the left wall a painting of San Rocco.
Categories: Places of historical value of artistic value
Via S. Giuseppe, 4, 13900 Biella BI |
Church of San Giuseppe: Further pictures in the section Photography |