Chiesa dell'Immacolata Concezione

The Church of the Immacolata Concezione on Via Garibaldi in Gorizia was built between 1647 and 1685 as the chapel of the neighbouring Ospedale delle Poverelle. Its single nave preserves seventeenth-century floral stuccoes and oval ceiling paintings, while the façade records later changes and the loss of the donor family’s marble arms during the First World War.

Why it matters

The church is an example of the Barocco Goriziano, a style with Venetian and Viennese affinities. It was founded as the place of worship for the adjacent hospital and retains much of its seventeenth-century decorative scheme. An earlier tourist sign attributed the ceiling paintings to the Quaglio workshop; the parish history identifies their painter as an anonymous Baroque master.

What to notice

The façade has a portal crowned by a broken tympanum, with a large window above and an oculus below the projecting cornice. Niches on either side hold statues of Saint Andrew and Beato Daniele degli Ungrispach. The Porcia family’s marble arms, once displayed on the façade, were lost during the First World War. Inside, floral stuccoes frame oval paintings of the Glory of Saint Mary Assumed. The single nave ends in a truncated apse.

Context and history

The church was built for Gorizia’s Ospedale delle Poverelle, with Andrea da Porcia as its donor. A drawing by Marussig from 1682 records the earlier façade. It was remodelled in the nineteenth century in Venetian Baroque forms, including the broken tympanum. In the twentieth century, nearby buildings blocked the nave’s lunette windows, and the church lost its apse and the cantoria above the entrance. The remaining stucco decoration preserves the building’s Baroque character.