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Vigliano Biellese (Biella)- Church of Santa Maria Assunta
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 The Church of Santa Maria Assunta is the most important church in Vigliano Biellese, a town located immediately east of Biella.
The church was built, in its first version, in the Romanesque era, between the eleventh and twelfth centuries, already structured into three naves. Very little remains of the original church. In particular, the original masonry still appears in the underroof of the nave. Two stone stylophore lions today conserved in the Museum of the Territory of Biella were part of the portico in front of the first facade.
The church was modified in the fifteenth century, but the most important changes were made in the Baroque era, after 1630, with the choir rebuilt in Baroque forms, with a square plan, corresponding to the current presbytery. The third side altar was then created, dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua, after those of Saint John the Baptist and of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary. In 1653 the bell tower was built, located at the end of the left side nave, very high and characterized by a very acute angled cusp.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the neoclassical pronaos, designed in 1808 by Nicola Tarino, was added in front of the facade.
The two-order façade of the church is Baroque, with the exception of the neoclassical pronaos, which hides much of the lower order.
The upper order is connected to the lower one through volutes and is marked by pilasters. At the top there is a large pediment. In the central section of the upper order there is a mixtilinear oculus and an oval frame which has remained empty. The lateral sections are instead occupied by two niches which house terracotta statues of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.
Only the facade is plastered. The rest of the church is in exposed stone, including the bell tower, equipped with a clock face on each side and with a bell cell which opens outwards on each side through large biforas.
Inside, the church has three naves, with the central nave equipped with a barrel vault with lunettes and the side naves with cross vaults. The side naves are separated from the central one by thick arches supported by columns. The edges of the lunettes of the vault are underlined by stucco decorations to simulate long garlands. Towards the bottom, the vault of the central nave is delimited by a band containing vegetal elements in stucco and cherub heads in correspondence with the columns and by a frame. The center of the vault is enriched by a fresco of the Crowned Virgin within a stucco frame.
On the counter-façade, a large choir loft is largely occupied by the church organ.
The church has two side chapels. The chapel on the right is dedicated to the Virgin of the Rosary. A black marble balustrade separates it from the nave. The altar is a valuable work of gilded wooden carving from the beginning of the eighteenth century by the Serpentiere of Sagliano who reused elements of a previous seventeenth century altar: the Mysteries of the Rosary, by Vincenzo Costantino of Vigliano, and the statue of the Virgin of the Rosary placed inside the niche in the center of the retable. The latter is characterized by the fact that it takes that of Oropa as a model, including the bird in Jesus' hand.
The retable is composed of a base decorated with gilded vegetal elements and in which numerous cherubs are depicted in the act of supporting the upper part of the retable. The latter includes two pairs of twisted columns wrapped in golden vines with between them the niche with the statue of the Madonna and the oval frames with the mysteries of the Rosary.
Above the niche, two putti hold a small but rich golden frame with an oval depicting the Crowned Virgin.
At the top, above the entablature resting on the four columns and surrounded by putti, cherub heads and garlands, Baby Jesus Salvator Mundi.
On the other side is the Chapel of the Madonna of Oropa, with an altar and balustrade in polychrome marble.
At the head of the right side nave there is the altar dedicated to Sant'Antonio from Padua. Made of inlaid polychrome marble, it was built in 1774 by Giovanni Albuzzi from Como and was originally the main altar of the church.
The presbytery and choir form a very deep space. The presbytery, separated from the nave by a polychrome marble balustrade made in 1774, has a cross vault with ribs underlined by garland-shaped stucco decorations. The four evangelists are depicted in the sails, inside the rounds. On the walls there are some frescoes with episodes from Mary's life about which it was not possible to recover information.
The choir has a domed vault decorated with a baroque quadrature to simulate a round hall in the center open to the sky in which the Virgin of the Assumption is depicted. The lower part of the walls is occupied by the eighteenth-century wooden choir stalls, probably the work of Gaspare Serra di Tollegno.
The Baroque high altar in polychrome marble was created in 1779 by the Ticinese Apollonio Colombara, who was also responsible for the balustrade of the presbytery.
The large Renaissance crucifix in painted wood currently located at the entrance to the presbytery deserves special mention. From the early sixteenth century, it is attributed to a Lombard artist and was originally located on the architrave of the presbytery. It has the peculiarity of not having a beard and having real hair and not carved into wood. It represents one of the peaks of Biella Renaissance sculpture.
Categories: Places of historical value of artistic value
Via Chiesa, 8, 13856 Vigliano Biellese BI |
Church of Santa Maria Assunta: Further pictures in the section Photography |