Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore

On a square beside the old Carignano castle, Racconigi's Santa Maria Maggiore rebuilds a medieval pieve in eighteenth-century dress. Designed by Carlo Antonio Castelli between 1725 and 1727, it guards one of Piedmont's great altar paintings — Claudio Francesco Beaumont's Assunta — along with canvases by Morgari, Blanchery, Trono and Milocco.

Why it matters

Santa Maria Maggiore is Racconigi's treasure house of painting. Its high altarpiece, the Assunta painted by court artist Claudio Francesco Beaumont in 1761–62 within a marble frame approved by the architect Bernardo Vittone, ranks among the painter's major works and among the most significant artworks in the town. Around it hang canvases by Beaumont's designated successor Vittorio Blanchery, by Michele Antonio Milocco and by the Cuneo painter Pietro Alessandro Trono. The church also embodies a civic story: its long construction was driven by the growing congregation and by a friendly rivalry with the nearby parish of San Giovanni Battista, whose bell tower it seems to challenge in height across the historic centre.

What to notice

• The cotto façade on two levels, unusually animated in design, with a main portal crowned by a painted medallion.
• The bell tower, restored in 1927, rising in visual competition with San Giovanni Battista's nearby tower.
• The high altar: Beaumont's Assunta of 1761–62 set in the marble work of Lugano stonemasons Andrea and Cesare Rossi.
• In the vault of the presbytery, the Adorazione dell'Ostia, and in the choir, Faith, Hope and Charity, attributed to Paolo Emilio Morgari.
• The Chapel of the Suffragio, with Vittorio Blanchery's Madonna with Child and the souls in purgatory of about 1770, commissioned by the local Compagnia del Suffragio.
• The sacristy paintings — Trono's Adoration of the Magi and Vision of San Pellegrino Laziosi, and Milocco's Baptism of Jesus from shortly before 1730 — of high quality though in poor condition.

Context and history

The church replaced a medieval predecessor on the same site, retaining parts of its foundations and side walls. Carlo Antonio Castelli designed the rebuilding, carried out between 1725 and 1727 with contributions from the townspeople. The interior is a single nave flanked by eight side chapels. Today Santa Maria Maggiore is a subsidiary church of the parish of S. Maria e S. Giovanni Battista in the Diocese of Turin — two distinct historic buildings served by one parish in the same centre.