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Netro (Biella)- Oratory of San Rocco
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Show to visit in the Biella area: |
 The Oratory of San Rocco stands spectacularly on a small promontory in the center of the town formed by the remains of the ancient medieval castle of the Recagnos, already in ruins in 1339 when the town came under the control of the Bishopric of Vercelli. It was built starting from 1602 in memory of the plague epidemic of 1599, but was completed only in 1619. In 1688 the massive bell tower was added, also on the layout of the ancient castle. The Oratory of San Rocco was built so as to be in line with the Parish church of Santa Maria Assunta, which faces it at the other end of a straight idea that cuts the town lengthwise in two.
The small church was almost entirely rebuilt from scratch in 1742, as was part of the bell tower.
The oratory has a beautiful exposed brick facade in late Baroque style. It is dominated below by the large main entrance door and by the frame that surrounds it. Above the door there is a large window with an imaginative mixtilinear frame. The facade, which is bordered laterally by two pilasters and above by several cornices, closes at the top with a Baroque pediment.
The main entrance can be reached via a high and steep stone staircase.
The oratory also has a secondary entrance on the left side, which can also be reached only by climbing a fairly steep staircase.
The interior of the oratory includes three rooms. The first is the entrance hall, rectangular and not in line with the longitudinal axis of the church but shifted to the right.
From the atrium you can access the main room, which serves as a single nave. It is placed in a raised position with respect to the entrance and has an ellipsoidal dome cover. At the center of the vault is a mixtilinear frame in typical Baroque style.
Finally, there is the presbytery, in a further raised position with respect to the main room and equipped with a unguated barrel vault, a type of vault more typical of Renaissance buildings.
On the back wall of the presbytery there is a precious altarpiece in gilded and painted carved wood with an architectural structure. It is attributed to the workshop of Carlo Francesco Aureggio, which would mean that it was made at the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Above a base rest two couples of twisted columns on which rests a thick trabeation. At the apex a Baroque pediment with a statue of St. Sebastian in front of it. All enriched by putti, cherub heads, volutes and decorative elements with a vegetable theme. At the center of the altarpiece is a large niche containing a carved and painted wooden statue of San Rocco from the early seventeenth century.
Categories: Places of historical value of artistic value
Strada Provinciale 500, 23, 13896 Netro BI |
Oratory of San Rocco: Further pictures in the section Photography |