San Michele Arciconfraternita

On the same square as Neive's parish church stands a second, different religious building: the church of the Archconfraternity of San Michele. Built in the second half of the eighteenth century to a design by the architect Antonio Borgese, it is the work of a lay brotherhood, and its vertical, compressed, brick-modelled character gives Piazza Negro much of its personality.

Why it matters

Built in the second half of the eighteenth century to Antonio Borgese's design, San Michele combines an upward-thrusting brick facade and a compressed entrance space with a broader apsidal area. Its plan and massing give the confraternity church a distinctive place beside Neive's parish church.

What to notice

The interior retains a Renaissance-style organ, an eighteenth-century painting of Saint Michael in the apse, and a polychrome wooden processional statue of the Archangel. Outside, the rusticated brick facade meets the dome and bell tower above a masonry corner buttress.

Context and history

The church was built in the second half of the eighteenth century to a design by Antonio Borgese. It belongs to the Archconfraternity of San Michele, one of the lay sodalities that flourished across Piedmont in that period, caring for devotional life, processions and works of charity alongside the parish clergy. Its eighteenth-century furnishings include the apse painting, processional statue and organ.