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Netro (Biella)- Parish Church of Santa Maria Assunta
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 The parish church of Santa Maria Assunta was built in two phases, from 1828 to 1834 and from 1876 to 1879, on the site of the pre-existing Oratory of Saints Fabian, Sebastian and Rocco, to which the seat of the parish had been transferred (its seat had previously been the currently Cemetery Church of Santa Maria Assunta).
It should be noted that the new church was built so as to be in line with the Oratory of San Rocco, which faces it at the other end of a straight line that cuts the town lengthwise in two.
The first part of the work led to the construction of the rear part of the church, in the second part it was completed the front part, including the facade.
The church has a Latin cross structure with a projecting transept. The peculiarity, however, is represented by the choir, which occupies an ellipsoidal irregular octagonal space placed behind the presbytery, with the major axis placed transversally, so that the choir appears to protrude on the sides as much as the transept.
The facade (not visible on this page, because the stage was being set up for the village festival right in front of it on the day the church was photographed) is neoclassical and has two orders. Two pairs of paired semi-columns with a circular section and Ionic capital flank the central entrance door, while two pilasters, also with Ionic capitals, delimit laterally the lower part of the facade.
The central entrance door has a lunette, with the double frame of the door that goes around it. Between the semi-columns and the pilasters there are two large windows.
Above the Ionic capitals rests a thick entablature.
The upper order develops only in the central part and includes a semicircular window which recalls the lunette of the door below it.
Above, the facade ends with a large triangular pediment.
The bell tower is inserted on the left, between the left arm of the transept and the choir. Slender and not very high, it is practically invisible because it is always hidden by the facade or by the surrounding buildings.
The interior includes three naves. The central nave is delimited from the lateral ones by pillars with a cruciform section.
Each nave comprises three spans with a hemispherical vault decorated with trompe l'oeil frescoes simulating ribs in relief and decorative stucco. Decorations with the same decorative function are present on most of the internal surfaces of the church.
The cap above the crossing is decorated with a fresco depicting the Virgin of the Assumption. Around it depictions of the Old Testament prophets Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Isaiah.
The ends of the transept arms house the altars of the Sacred Heart (on the right, Fig. 5) and of the Virgin of the Rosary (on the left). It should be noted that these altars, in polychrome marble and with an architectural structure in the late Baroque style, pre-existed the current church: that of the Virgin of the Rosary dates back to 1777 by Bartolomeo Gallo, that of the Sacred Heart was completed in 1790 for the Oratory of Santa Maria delle Grazie of the fraction of Netro Bondasco (not yet described on this site) and transferred in 1805 to the new parish church.
The first houses, inside a large niche in the center of the altarpiece surrounded by medallions depicting the mysteries of the rosary, a beautiful statue of the Virgin with Child.
Entering immediately on the left is the baptistery, delimited by a gate. Inside there is a precious wooden relief from the end of the eighteenth century from the previous church depicting a Presentation in the Temple. It is attributed to Pietro Antonio Serpentiere da Sagliano.
In the right aisle there is also an altar with a beautiful carved and painted and gilded wooden retable with architectural structure, formed by two fluted semi-columns with Corinthian capitals accompanied by volutes and cherub heads that support an entablature above which is a broken pediment (Fig. 4). The retable, coming from the previous church, frames an altarpiece in which a Madonna and Child accompanied by St Gratus and St John the Evangelist.
The presbytery is slightly raised compared to the naves and is delimited by a balustrade in polychrome marble added in 1809. At the center of it is the large high altar in polychrome marble in late Baroque style. It was built in 1752 by Francesco Mario Olgiati from Viggiù. The dove of the Holy Spirit surrounded by angels and the four evangelists are depicted on the dome of the presbytery.
Above the main altar hangs a golden canopy in Umbertine style from the second half of the nineteenth century.
At the entrance to the presbytery, on the left, is the wooden pulpit (Fig. 3), built in 1795 by Prospero Garizio da Ponderano.
The choir (Larger picture) is very large and, as mentioned, has the shape of an irregular octagon. The lower part of the walls is occupied by the stalls of the wooden choir on two levels, built in 1838. On the back wall there is a retable in architectural style containing an oval with a nineteenth-century depiction of the Virgin of the Assumption surmounted by two angels holding the crown in white stucco from 1833. In the short walls of the octagon there are niches with statues of the saints Marcus, Andreas, Peter and Paul. The first two are from 1705.
The vault of the choir has the same type of trompe l'oeil fresco decoration as the vaults of the naves, although in this case the ribs are real. At the base of each short side of the dome there is an oval fresco depicting a Doctor of the Church: Ambrose, Gregory, Augustine and Jerome.
The fresco decoration of the walls and the vault of the choir dates back to the years 1881-1883.
Finally, we should mention the large wooden inner door screen, from the 80s of the nineteenth century, and the choir loft on the counter-facade with the perfectly functional organ from 1885. The wooden parapet of the choir loft was also made in the 80s of the nineteenth century.
Categories: Places of historical value of artistic value
Via Asilo, 1, 13896 Netro BI |
Parish Church of Santa Maria Assunta: Further pictures in the section Photography |