Churches and places of worship Country of Asti

The Cathedral of Asti or the so-called Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta and San Gottardo dates back to the 13th century. It was built in 1266 in Romanesque - Lombard style. It is the largest church in Piedmont, and it represents a historical and architectural value in the area of Asti. After the deep restorations it was completed in 1470. Today the building has special decorative architectural elements of Gothic - Piedmontese art. The chapel has a height of 24 m.

Site history: The Romanesque church of S. Maria appears in the register of the Asti churches of 1345, but its construction is certainly about a century earlier. It had an adjoining cemetery but, already in 1585, the pastoral visit report notes its distance from the concentric that had formed and attested in a higher position, defining it as a "country church". Partially restored in 2002, but now in a state of neglect. Site description: The façade with an anachronistic Baroque oculus and a rusty gate to replace a door, stolen long ago, as well as the badly plastered north and south sides, show that at the end of the seventeenth century the building was practically rebuilt by reusing the original bricks with much approximation and with the addition of buttresses. The interior is in a state of total abandonment but still contains the panel relating to the static consolidation of 2002 which was limited to the refurbishment of the roof. The 1693 fresco inside the apse is probably irrecoverable but apparently modestly made. The only original part is the lower half of the apse, while the upper part, particularly clumsy and disproportionate, shows that it has undergone the

The parish church, dedicated to the Madonna del Carmine, is attested in documents starting from the end of the sixteenth century. It was subject to alterations and extensions in the seventeenth century and in the second half of the eighteenth century, when it assumed its present form based on a design by the Turin architect Giovanni Battista Pagano. The elegant late Baroque façade, plastered in white, is characterized by a large elliptical oculus, a half-height horizontal frame and an entablature dominated by the triangular tympanum. Inside, with a single nave with four side chapels, valuable eighteenth-century furnishings, a baptismal font and contemporary murals are preserved. Two large canvases, from the eighteenth century, but restored in the nineteenth century, depict the Madonna and Child with saints. Behind the main altar there is a painting of the Black Madonna of the Shrine of Guadalupe, brought from New Mexico in 1752 by Giovanni Battista Codiga, who had made his fortune overseas.

A Romanesque – Gothic example, built between the thirteenth and fifteenth century on an earlier church, which keeps inside the remains of frescoes of the fifteenth century.

The Abbey of Santa Maria di Vezzolano, is an example of Romanesque-Gothic art. Inside it has two naves, instead the third was incorporated by the adjacent cloister. Very interesting is the pier that separates the central nave from the Gothic vaults and with two orders of Romanesque figures in relief. Inside the Abbey there is a triptych in relief in terracotta in green stone.

Called the Rotunda, built in the eleventh century and then transformed into an octagonal Baptistery in 1280.

The San Pietro complex dates back to the twelfth century and is one of the best preserved examples of churches. It has a special structure and very decorated on the walls, doors and roofs. It is a large building with large doors and single doors decorated with terracotta friezes. The purpose of the complex was the reception of pilgrims and travelers. Today it is among the most visited religious places in the city.

The church of the Blessed Virgin Shrine dates back to the fourteenth century. It has a large chapel, where at the top is the statue of the Virgin Mary with Child Enthroned. The building was rebuilt in 1509. It has historical and architectural value. It is currently open to the public.