Cavatore
the church of San Lorenzo
The ancient parish church of San Lorenzo di Cavatore is located outside the main residential area, along a road leading to the ancient defensive center of the bishops of Acqui Terme. The apse of this church features late-Gothic frescoes from the 15th century, depicting Christ in a mandorla (almond shape) and a procession of saints, with traces of overlapping and distinct regional artistic styles.
South of Acqui Terme, at the top of a winding road that offers views of the imposing arches of the Roman aqueduct, next to the bed of the Bormida River, stands the town of Cavatore. Its earliest mention dates back to 996 in an imperial diploma confirming the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Acqui. Originally fortified with a tower and a castle (which is still mentioned in 1205), Cavatore was part of the defensive system of the bishops of Acqui, highlighting its geographical and political importance.
The tower, the only remaining testimony to the medieval origins of the complex, does not belong to the first phase of the settlement, but rather traces its reconstruction between the late 12th and early 13th centuries. It has a square base, without decorative elements on the top or arrow slits, with three openings, the first of which, accessing the base, was reached by stairs. The fortified area enclosed within its walls not only the castle, likely in the form of a keep, but also the homes of the villa’s inhabitants. Today, the urban fabric of the village also features a late medieval residence, known as Casa Felicita, as well as the remaining fragments of the ancient Romanesque church, dedicated to Sant’Antonio Abate (Saint Anthony the Abbot), whose pillars retain traces of the original wall structure. During the early modern period, this church underwent significant expansion, followed by the annexation of an adjacent oratory. However, following severe damage from an earthquake, it was declared unfit for use and partially demolished during the 19th century. In the past, it shared a load-bearing wall with the adjacent oratory of San Giovanni Battista and San Rocco.
The Church of San Lorenzo
The Church of San Lorenzo, originally the first parish church in the area, maintained its status until the 16th century. Located outside the main residential area, along a main road, it is currently abandoned, but it once served as a cemetery chapel until the early 20th century. Pastoral visits from the 18th and 19th centuries document the presence of numerous burials within the church and in the surrounding grounds. The cemetery is described in the late 18th century as distinguished by a white cross in the center and an entrance door, and five adult tombs and one children’s tomb within the church itself.
Remains of a pictorial decoration, presumably contemporary with the embellishment of the current apse, are still visible in the doorway on the south wall, now closed, where a skull and some letters can be seen in the central ashlar of the arch, while part of a skeleton can be seen in the lunette below.
The church is oriented, with a single nave ending in a semicircular apse. The current dimensions do not correspond to the original ones, as indicated by the remains of the foundations visible from the exterior and by the evidence in the episcopal registers, which since the 16th century mention an internal chapel closed by a gate, complete with four open windows, which no longer exists. Of the original medieval layout, the semicircular apse and part of the nave remain, although fractures in the masonry walls and external analysis of the traces of the foundations opposite the façade suggest that part of the nave was contracted (perhaps due to a collapse) and rebuilt on a smaller scale.
The church was likely built between the late 12th and early 13th centuries by highly specialized local craftsmen, as evidenced by the attention to the masonry construction in the external apse. This allows us to admire the high quality of the workmanship, especially in the architectural composition and stonework (single monolithic pieces have been identified in the composition of the jambs and archivolts), also visible inside the apse dome. The exterior masonry features an alternating texture of long, locally quarried sandstone ashlars, arranged in regular courses and divided vertically by pilasters. This architectural composition recalls the building practice of the Acqui Terme Cathedral, built around 1020 and consecrated in 1067, and has been compared with other churches of the same period, such as San Nazario e Celso in Ovrano and San Vito in Morsasco, creating a local network of examples from the same family. Similar construction phases have also been attributed to the nearby buildings of Santa Agata in Monteggio-Cremolino and the Addolorata in Acqui Terme.
The apse preserves fragments of a more complex fresco cycle, dated to the late 15th or early 16th century, following an iconographic scheme also found elsewhere in the Bormida Gotica (Gothic Bormida) area. Despite the compromised integrity due to the fair state of preservation and the partial loss of part of the figurative decoration, fragments of Christ in a mandorla (almond shape) surrounded by four Doctors of the Church can be seen. The middle section depicts a Theory of Saints, while the lower section shows traces of a red curtain base. Despite restoration work and obvious additions, the middle section features the figures of Saint Andrew, Saint Defendente or Saint Thomas, the Sorrowful Christ (or a Pietà), Saint James or Saint Roch (San Rocco), and a Saint. In the inner surface of the triumphal arch, although damaged, a Saint Agatha with the attributes of martyrdom and a male saint are visible on the right, while on the opposite side are Saint Anthony the Abbot and Saint Sebastian.
The depiction of the Madonna enthroned, which dominates the central section, is painted on a plaster of a different composition, suggesting a distinct authorship from the other frescoes.
The overlap with a previous pictorial cycle, which is difficult to identify today, is therefore evident. The stylistic characteristics of the Madonna seem to hark back to Lombard art (particularly echoes of the Zavattari family), while the other saints, particularly Saint Agatha, display distinctive features of early 16th-century Piedmontese-Ligurian painting. The pictorial intervention would have been completed and harmonized by a plant-based filling, as suggested by the traces of a floral decoration on the outer surface, consisting of repeated motifs of large white petals on a colored background.