Cappella di San Giuseppe

At the crossroads of lanes to four hamlets, the chapel of San Giuseppe has stood among the vineyards since at least 1623. Rebuilt in the 18th century and enlarged after the 1887 earthquake, it keeps a baroque brick altar, a painting of the dying saint, and a history of devotion to San Giuseppe lavoratore.

Why it matters

Of all Monforte d'Alba's rural chapels, San Giuseppe has one of the fullest documented biographies. It appears in a donation deed of 2 November 1623, was recorded by Monsignor Galletti in his 1878 survey of the commune's rural sacelli, and survived being requisitioned as a soldiers' shelter during the French occupation of 1796. Its standing among Monforte's country churches was recorded in 1929, when Don Dallorto's reply to a diocesan questionnaire counted only seven rural chapels remaining in the commune — and this was one of them. The chapel illustrates how a Langhe hamlet's religious life developed: privately maintained, communally funded, rebuilt after disaster, and still a node of village ritual at the crossroads of Le Coste, Mosconi, Cabutti and Scaramuzza.

What to notice

• The façade of exposed brick, arranged in two orders divided by a cornice,

with a circular window holding a clock and a portico sheltering the entrance — a working country frontispiece rather than a showpiece.

• The single hall beneath a barrel vault, and at its head a baroque altar in

brick with stuccoes, its side arches defining the sacristy behind.

• The singers' gallery above the entrance, reached by a wrought-iron spiral

staircase — evidence that the chapel hosted sung devotion, not only prayer.

• The ex-voto offerings accumulated around the altar, and the notable painting

of the death of Saint Joseph, the chapel's principal image.

• The inscription recording the early-1900s renovation and enlargement, paid for

by donations from the residents — the community's signature on the building.

Context and history

The chapel's documented life spans four centuries. Its first appearance is in the 1623 donation deed; it is attested again in 1703, and during the 18th century it was rebuilt as part of the wider renewal of Monforte's religious and civic buildings. In 1753 it was described as "propria dei privati" — private property — in the Le Coste area, and in 1796 French soldiers sheltered there during the occupation. Monsignor Galletti's 1878 "Visitatio et descriptio sacellorum ruralium", a detailed record of Monforte's rural churches, found it with a single nave and a simple brick altar. The earthquake of 23 February 1887, which damaged so many of the Langhe's rural churches, also struck this chapel, prompting the donor-funded renovation and enlargement of the early 1900s. The chapel's later history includes devotion to San Giuseppe lavoratore.