San Giovannino

The Church of San Giovannino, connected to the confraternity of SS. Crocifisso, was in the neighbourhood of Gamondio, close to the gateway “to Genova” and built in 1484. The church was seriously damaged in a fire in 1706. The brothers decided to build a new church on the site of the previous one. In 1767, on a project by the architect Giuseppe Domenico Trolli, the choir, the sacristy, the bell tower and the vault above the presbytery were built. The intervention made it compliant with the canons of the Baroque. The façade is presented tripartite by pilasters surmounted by capitals. It is crowned by a triangular tympanum that culminates in a pinnacle holding a cross. In the tympanum there is a circular window recalling the traditional iconography of the Holy Trinity. In the upper register there are the statues depicting St. John the Baptist and Saint Carlo Borromeo together with the theological virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity. Above the entrance door to the church, furnished with an architrave, there is the late 16th century high relief of the Crucifix. At its feet, another four genuflected figures, brothers and sisters. The single-nave building has two side chapels and altars respectively dedicated to Saint Carlo Borromeo and to Our Lady of Sorrow. The decoration of the vault, realised during the works of 1767-1769, is an excellent example of Baroque in the Alessandria area. The nave ends with the apse, in a semi-circular shape, in which a large niche contains an imposing wooden sculpture depicting the scene of the Crucifixion with the Crucified, the Virgin Mary supported by Saint John and Mary Magdalen. In the nave in large niches are placed four other large wooden sculptures, for an overall of fourteen life-size statues of the 18th century, of fine workmanship, depicting as many episodes of the old Testament