Church of St. Christopher (chiesa di San Cristoforo)

Address Piazza Castello, 14020 Corsione AT, Italia

Web Site https://www.comune.corsione.at.it/it/page/la-chiesa-parrocchiale-fd901710-d109-42ca-aab3-72b95f4984a1

Highlights

Late 15th-century parish church.

The building, located in the highest part of the town, has undergone several remodels over time.

The church represents an important example of Piedmontese Baroque, with Rococo friezes.

Noteworthy is the bell tower, dating from the late 18th century.

The parish church was carved out of the stables of the ancient castle of Corsione.

It stands in a panoramic position.

Corsione has a parish church dedicated to St. Christopher, dating from the late 15th century: this building, located at the top of the village, has undergone frequent remodeling, and is now an appealing example of Piedmontese Baroque, with a bell tower, late 18th century and Rococo friezes.

The parish church, dedicated to St. Christopher, was carved out of one of the castle's stables, which in fact incorporated it within the city walls.

After the gradual downsizing of the castle, around the 17th century, the transformation of the original service building began, and the first version of the church was born, consisting of a nave and a side aisle, the one on the right (leaving the high altar behind); the other side aisle was much smaller and was renovated in 1888, with not a little controversy in the village.

It is a fine example of Piedmontese Baroque; the high altar is richly adorned with marble inlays and inserts of brightly colored stones; behind it, in the apsidal area, is an elegant wooden chancel, while the entrance is made up of the load-bearing structures of the chancel, built in 1896, on the initiative of the then parish priest of Corsione Don Pietro Caselli.

It preserves a valuable painting, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the 18th century, of difficult attribution.

The bell tower is a massive quadrangular construction, surmounted by a dome, the result of renovations to the original bell tower.

The work, dating from 1904, entailed a substantial expense for those times, 775 liras. On the bells, the Historical Archives preserve a beautiful series of documents, one from 1782 and another from 1789, the year in which they were cast, to remedy the poor sound produced by the bell then present, “especially on the occasion of giving bells to the hammer, as is often necessary,” as we read in the resolution of August 19, 1789, with which the then mayor Filippo Dallocchio promoted the initiative.

The same resolution contains the inscriptions that were made when the new bell was cast : “D. O. M et B. M. V. de Aniceto B. Christophoro M. Patronis Sacrurn” and to follow these two Latin mottos “Ingenua aes fecit saecli devotion and “Pervigil huc custos Patriae nostrae tulit. Philièppo Dall'occhio Sindaco et Petro Joanne Rosso et Josepho Ratto consulibus' (these are the names of the mayor and his two councilors, respectively).