SANTUARIO DI VICOFORTE
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A grandiose sanctuary that is the object of ardent popular devotion
A majestic complex a few kilometers from Mondovì, the Vicoforte sanctuary is the work of the Savoy family. Before it was built, a stele with a Madonna and Child stood on its site. Mistakenly struck by a harquebusier in the 16th century, it became the object of ardent popular devotion. In 1596, Charles-Emmanuel I commissioned the architect Ascanio Vittozzi to build a grandiose sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin, but his main aim was to make this place of worship a Savoy pantheon. Vittozzi died before he could complete the work, which did not resume until 1730, when Gallo crowned the edifice with an immense elliptical dome (the largest in the world). The facade of the sanctuary is striking for the different architectural styles it features: the stone lower section is in classic Renaissance style, while the imposing red-brick drum, reinforced by eight buttresses, supporting the dome, is a strange example of late Piedmontese Baroque. The interior walls of the dome are decorated with 6,000m2 of frescoes depicting theGlory of Mary facing the Holy Trinity, surrounded by the Saints and Doctors of the Church. At the center of the edifice stands a richly decorated aedicula (18th century) housing the stele of the Virgin and Child, for which everything was built. Since 2015, it has been possible to climb to the top of the dome and, since 2017, the sanctuary has housed the bodies of Italian king Vittorio Emanuele III and his wife Elena.
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