Saint Rocco's Chapel
Parish Church
Palazzo Re Rebaudengo
Madonna delle Grazie's Church
Saint Michele's Brotherhood
The Castle of Guarene
Saint Annunziata's church
The present small church is a reconstruction (1840) of a previous chapel built outside the town walls as a sign of thanksgiving for the end of the plague, which in 1631 slaughtered about half population in Guarene.
It was called "San Rocho alla Calcinera", because it was built near a lime quarry used as a depository for military materials and then for timber.
On 16th August, the solemnity of Saint Rocco, the people of Guarene follow old customs like the parade and the benediction of animals (often replaced by cars and tractors with their drivers) and the distribution of the "Caritùn", bread once handed out for charity.
Towards the end of 1400 this church - now dedicated to the Saints Pietro and Bartolomeo - replaced a more ancient parish dedicated to Saint Pietro and situated not very far.
The present construction, carried out according to the project of the architect Filippo Castelli from San Damiano d'Asti (he followed also the realization of the patronal Chapel in the Castle), with nave and two aisles and the front in bricks, is the result of at least two partial transformations -one in 1781 and the other in 1823 - in order to create more room.
The church had been under the patronage of the Roero family since 1845. In fact, as evidence of this dependence, there is a passage which crosses over the street and connects the Castle garden and the private gallery of the Count on the left aisle of the building.
The big paintings arranged on the walls of the aisles represent the side altars suppressed long ago.
Re Rebaudengo Palace in the main square of Guarene is an ancient building of the eighteenth century.
Inside, rooms with finely decorated vaults can be still admired.
The internal courtyard and the terrace
open on to the wide valley of Tanaro and the hills of Langhe.
In 1997, after intense repairs, the Palace became the seat of the Museum of Contemporary
Art of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo: the contrast between the classical art of
the Settecento and the latest modern art trends is deeply striking for the public.
For further information:
www.fondsrr.org
*Church of Our Lady of Graces
**a word of the dialect from Piemonte, which is the diminutive of Madonna, Our Lady
This church was built in 1711 at the southern entrance of the town and it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary from Moretta (CN-Cuneo), whose cult was spreading during those years thanks to the various miraculous recoveries of men and cattle struck by epidemics.
Later, the object of the popular faith became Our Lady of Graces and this appellation is still remembered in the name of the chapel. Our Lady of Graces is celebrated at the beginning of September and specifically in the day when the birth of the Virgin is commemorated.
In the Chapel many votive offerings are treasured; most of them are thanksgiving paintings which represent miraculous recoverings from diseases, serious agricultural accidents and - more recently - injuries caused by war actions at the Russian front.
The precise date of the Brotherhood foundation is not known but its existence can be surely affirmed in the
year 1379, when the family heads gathered in this building to discuss and define the relationships with the
new feudal lord Roero, as a document preserved in the Castle archive records.
The site of the old chapel is almost the same where the current building can be found; the
difference is that the previous structure was built on a lower level with the front towards the present Via Sismonda.
The present structure of the building is the result of various modifications and additions.
The main body can be dated back to 1742 and after some years the two side chapels were added
(the chapel on the right is dedicated to the Archangel Michele, the other on the left to Saint Antonio).
The raising of the building on the Via Sismonda (operation which concerns not only the church but
also the access to the square) was carried out between the end of the eighteenth and the beginning
of the ninenteeth century. The front on Via Paoletti was built again in 1868 and the belfry is the
result of two interventions: one was realized 100 years before the other between the XIII and the XIV century.
At the moment it is deconsecrated and the necessary reparing works are being organized in order to make the building a centre for cultural events.
This building, incorrectly called "The Castle of Guarene", is one of the most remarkable noble residences of the
Settecento in Piemonte. It was conceived in a period, when a building for defence was no longer motivated.
The Count Carlo Giacinto Roero decided to replace the obsolete manor with a residence with the same features
as the other contemporary buildings.
These structures were suitable to receive those noblemen who were pleased to come back to the countryside
during the summer after they had spent a year savouring the delights at the Savoia's court in Torino.
The Count himself made the plan, inspired by the work of the architect from Messina Filippo Juvarra in service at the court of Savoia (among his works the front of Palazzo Madama in Torino can be quoted).
And to this artist - wrongly - for long the new building in Guarene had been attributed.
For further information:
www.castellodiguarene.com
After the Castle this church is the monument which is more striking on the hill of Guarene, above all
for its dimensions and for the structure of its bell-tower, leaning 45° compared to the building front.
It was built outside the ancient walls and founded on the area of a previous church between the
years 1699 and 1738 following the project of the architect Count Francesco Rachis from Carpeneto.
Various artists took part in the rich decorations of the church and their work can be also admired in the rooms
of the Castle, which was constructed in the same period.
For a long time it had been the see of two religious groups: one composed by men dressed with a deep
blue sack and one composed by women, called the "Umiliate" ("Humiliated"), with a yellow monastic dress.
Most of the works of the decorative painting belong to Matteo and Francesco Casoli, painters from Guarene,
while the figurative works belong to Michele Antonio Millocco, a painter from Torino.
Also the painting which represents the Annunciation belongs to this fraternity and it is a juvenile work of
Guglielmo Caccia known as Il Moncalvo.
Now the church is under repair and the aim of this operation is to reinforce the structure
and to renew the pictorial works of the interior (e.g. the drawing of the fake central cupola).
The style of the monument, a great example of the sacred architecture of the Settecento (the eighteenth century) in Piemonte, is Baroque. Its planimetry follows the form of the Greek cross (four arms of equal dimensions); the high altar and the two lateral altars, one dedicated to Saint Elizabeth (built in 1748) and the other to the Cross (dated back to 1738) are noteworthy.
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