Comune di Cherasco UFFICIO TURISTICO

CHURCH OF ST. GREGORY

CHURCH OF ST. GREGORY

Its bell tower remains as evidence of a church that is older in form than the current reconstruction of purely late Baroque taste, due to a total rebuilding that took place in the last quarter of the 17th century and the early 18th-century decorative apparatus. The present façade was even redesigned in the 19th century. Some evidence of the original construction can also be found on the exterior south wall, consisting mainly of decorative string courses in terracotta arches. Today, the church is considerably deprived of historical furnishings as, also for security reasons, the most precious objects were moved elsewhere.
After years of almost total abandonment, it has long since returned to open itself to city activities, exhibitions and concerts above all, reoccupying a role of dignified presence in community life. The walls of the nave preserve the 18th-century frescoes by Pozzo; in the presbytery, on the other hand, are those by Aliberti (‘Glory of St. Gregory’ at the top, ‘Banquet of St. Gregory’ and ‘Elemosina of St. Gregory’ on the walls of the presbytery). The back wall of the chancel is still by Pozzo.

Some chapels (in particular that of St. Secondo and of the Blessed Amedeo, under the patronage of the Salmatoris) still have furnishings of notable significance and paintings of good importance, along with precious wrought-iron gates, all of which can be discovered by an unhurried tourist at least as evidence of a valid craftsmanship, capable of satisfying a local clientele without particular pretensions, often more attentive to the gesture and religious significance than to the aesthetic one, however up-to-date and refined in terms of taste.