Cassinasco
The ancient parish church of Sant'Ilario
The ancient parish church of Sant'Ilario (Saint Hilary) in Cassinasco, of Romanesque origin, plays a significant role in local history. Despite its current condition, the church retains traces of a late Gothic pictorial cycle that entirely embellished the apse.
From a privileged geographical position, Cassinasco dominates access to the Belbo and Bormida Valleys. A fiefdom of the Del Carretto family since at least 1313, in 1481 it was handed over by the Marquises of Monferrato to Enrietto Bruno (already a partial feudal lord of Roccaverano). It subsequently fell under the control of the Scarampi family of Bubbio, remaining within the lands under the control of the Monferrato family until the end of the 18th century. The remains of the medieval urban fortification, unfortunately destroyed in the early 17th century, consist of a tall square tower dating to the 12th century. A building, which later collapsed, must have been built next to it on the southern side, closely connected to the walls (partially preserved) built on the same hill where the town center is today.
In addition to the peripheral churches of San Massimo and San Sebastiano, the inhabited center of Cassinasco is home to the parish church, originally dedicated to Santa Maria (in the late 16th century). It was rebuilt in the 18th century and dedicated to Sant’Ilario. Inside, on the left side of the presbytery, is a small oval painted directly on the wall and framed in stucco, which appears to recall the church’s original dedication. This is a small face of the Madonna, dating to the late 16th century and likely part of a larger fresco. Although it was partially repainted during the work undertaken to embellish the church, it remains the only surviving testimony to the decoration of the previous building.
L’ancient parish church of Sant’Ilario
The first parish church in the village of Cassinasco dedicated to Sant’Ilario was built in the Romanesque period on the road to the famous Santuario dei Caffi (the ancient 18th-century church of the Madonna delle Grazie), a place of worship particularly frequented by the inhabitants of the surrounding areas.
The church of Sant’Ilario has a single nave ending in a semicircular apse, with a conical roof made of “lose” (local stone), and is now part of a private property. Archaeological excavations conducted in the late 1990s confirmed a clear discontinuity in the masonry between the apse, the side walls, and the façade, which also differs in the masonry texture. The older, Romanesque structure features a semicircular apse made of local sandstone, joined without the typical use of bricks, while this practice was not followed on the façade, which appears to be a late modern reconstruction.
By the end of the sixteenth century, the chapel was already in poor condition, lacking a sacristy, with the floor and vault in need of restoration; however, it was still functional for funerals and the burial of the deceased. The church’s function as a cemetery was still attested at the end of the eighteenth century, when the parish priest in charge, describing the building, recalled the presence of numerous human bones in the surrounding soil. In the previous century, the church fortunately avoided a bishop’s request for demolition and the reuse of its building materials for the construction of the new parish church. It continued to serve the population until the sixteenth century, when the new parish church was erected, initially dedicated to Virgin Mary, later changed to Saint Hilary of Poitiers, located in the town center next to the tower.
The pictorial decoration adorning the interior of the apse is in a less than optimal state of preservation, caused both by environmental degradation and by the “chipping” of the painted surface, the result of attempts to cover the paintings with successive layers of plaster. The presence of a Late Gothic style, common in the area, is nevertheless recognizable: Christ in a mandorla (almond shape) surrounded by the Evangelists filling the apse basin, a “Theory of Saints” dear to local devotion in the middle register, and a red velarium (drapery) in the lower plinth.
The decent quality of the execution, which highlights the non-spatial nature of the figures, along with the still archaic compositional model, is nevertheless skillfully and sophisticatedly characterized by the Saints in the middle register. Although it is not possible to provide a definitive interpretation, one can identify, from left to right, Saint Thomas, Jesus in Sorrow, Saint Bernardino of Siena, Saint Guido, a Warrior Saint, Saint Hilary, Saint Peter, Saint James, and Saint Paul.
The presence of Saint Guido, bishop of Acqui Terme, whose veneration spread primarily from 1499 onward, has helped date the painting to the late 15th or early 16th century. The depiction of the saint, holding a model of the Acqui Terme church in his right hand and a crosier in the other, has been compared with other contemporary art-historical models, such as a painting of him in the Acqui Cathedral, and appears to be among the oldest surviving ones.
The soffit of the apse arch features a colorful, stylized plant frieze, interspersed with minute shields depicting several male faces, identifiable as the Fathers of the Church or portraits of the local lords (any traces of cartouches are missing): they could likely be the Bruno family, who since 1481 have held the fiefdom of Cassinasco, along with that of Roccaverano.
Twelve years later, Martino Bruno was listed as the feudal lord, receiving the castle, villa, and land of Cassinasco from his brother Enrico. On February 15, 1530, Bernardina de Brunis, widow of Martino Bruno (lord of Cassinasco), left instructions in her will to be buried in the church of Santa Maria di Cassinasco, where the remains of her deceased children lie. She also left a sum of 25 florins for the restoration and maintenance of that church. By that time, the ancient parish church of Sant’Ilario appears to have ceased to fulfill its role as the primary religious reference for the community and the local lords.