Chiesa di San Pietro Martire (San Cristoforo)

Erected in 1445 beside a Dominican convent and consecrated in 1480, San Pietro Martire is a Gothic church in Vigevano. Its octagonal bell tower was cut in half during a seventeenth-century siege and rebuilt, and beneath the choir rests the body of Blessed Matteo Carreri, the city's patron saint.

Why it matters

The Dominican foundation links Vigevano’s religious history to the cult of Beato Matteo Carreri, the preacher honoured as the city’s patron. Its Gothic form and octagonal bell tower remain prominent features.

What to notice

The plan is an imperfect Latin cross on polystyle pillars, closing in a high polygonal choir above a crypt reached by two entrances flanking the raised presbytery; the saint's body lies in the crypt. On the brick facade, three pinnacles crown the three aisles, and the Gothic portal with its ringed moulding keeps a terracotta frame with a bas-relief added in 1969. On the left flank is a walled-up secondary portal traditionally associated with the Sforza court. Until the late nineteenth century, an embankment connected the street level to this door. During the French siege of the Rocca Nuova in 1645, the bell tower was reduced to half its height; it was rebuilt a few years later.

Context and history

The church's frescoes carry a story of their own. When neo-Gothic false vaults were built in 1840, they concealed paintings executed in 1447–1450 high in the transept arch, where they remain today in the gap between vaults and roof: a bust of Saint Dominic of Guzmán at the centre, a landscape with castle and church to one side, and soldiers with lances and banners on the other, one cartiglio reading "britanni". The parish interprets them as an ex-voto of the Vigevanesi against a threat of runaway mercenaries after the dissolution of the Visconti duchy, turned aside by an exceptional flood of the Ticino. The parish is titled San Cristoforo in San Pietro Martire within the Diocese of Vigevano.