Murialdo
The church of San Lorenzo
In Murialdo, the medieval castle was connected by a bridge over the Bormida River to two other strategic defensive points, the Church of San Lorenzo and the Oratory of Sant'Agostino, thus forming a complex architectural and urban defense system. Noteworthy is the sculpted portal of the Church of San Lorenzo, which represents an interesting testimony to the active involvement of the local community.
Traveling north along the Bormida di Millesimo River, Murialdo presents itself as a place of extraordinary devotional complexity, characterized by the presence of eighteen chapels scattered across eight hamlets. This phenomenon testifies to the constant devotional fervor of its inhabitants over the centuries, a fervor which has never diminished. The early medieval castle and its curtain of defensive towers, positioned sloping down a promontory and now in ruins, were connected by a bridge over the Bormida River to two other strategic sites, the parish church of San Lorenzo and the oratory of Sant’Agostino, which formed what has been recognized as a complex architectural and urban defense system.
The church of San Lorenzo
The entrance portal of the Church of San Lorenzo is surmounted by a lunette decorated with a fresco depicting a Madonna and Child with announcing angels, reviving a pictorial model popular in the late Gothic period in other surrounding areas, such as the Mondovì area. Below the lunette, an explanatory sculptural decoration depicts the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, a Spanish deacon who, following persecution, was burned alive on a gridiron. The dramatic scene is framed by an epigraph that records 1445, the year of the building’s new construction, the workers who carried it out (led by Francesco Garone), and the dedication to Saint Lawrence, protector of the Diocese of Alba (to whose district Murialdo belonged) and the church’s patron saint.
This is a significant testament to the entire community’s participation in the construction of this place of worship, recognized as an integral part of its social and spiritual identity. The reconstruction, which was granted in 1440 and was undertaken to repair the deteriorated foundations, was followed by a more imposing and impressive one in the second half of the 17th century, responsible for its current appearance. The architectural structure of the 15th-century church, which featured an exposed truss roof and three naves, surprisingly emerges in the first column to the right of the altar: from it emerge a stone capital decorated with vegetal racemes and a superb late-Gothic fresco depicting Saint Catherine of Alexandria, portrayed standing with the palm of martyrdom, inserted into an extraordinary micro-architecture.
The extraordinary mastery expressed in her face ensured its preservation during subsequent restorations, allowing the fresco to be preserved intact in the new pillar and preserved to this day. Restoration work in the first decade of the 21st century uncovered the remainder of the body and a dedication in the lower section. This dates the work to 1459 and names the patron, a certain Rubeus de Cardano, of Lombard origin.
The current sacristy, likely a reuse of a chapel from the original church, houses a remarkable and complete pictorial episode: in the soaring vaults, a fresco decoration depicts the four Evangelists with their symbols before masterfully carved thrones and lecterns; in the sub-arch are the Prophets (Jeremiah, David, Moses, and Ezekiel); and on the walls are Stories of the Virgin (Annunciation, Presentation at the Temple, and Assumption). The creation of a contemporary window damaged a Marian panel, executed by the same workshop led by the anonymous Master of Roccaverano (and his collaborators) in the late 15th century.
Access to the church of San Lorenzo, through its portal, appears discordant with the main façade. Considered an architectural enigma, it might be plausible to consider that the church, dating back to the 15th century, originally had an entrance with a descending staircase (as suggested by the height of the floor on which the 15th-century column painted with Saint Catherine of Alexandria stands). This hypothesis is further supported by the different level of the adjacent street, which is clearly lower.
The adjacent oratory dedicated to Saint Augustine stands on an ancient defensive structure, likely a watchtower, in which the lay brotherhood of the Disciplinanti settled as early as the late 15th century, although it is first mentioned in a church document in 1525.
Over time, the building has undergone progressive expansions and has been enriched with wooden seats, some of which are still visible in documents from the 1980s, with traces of anchoring on the walls.
Recently, during restoration work that involved the removal of the altar painting for restoration, an unexpected 16th-century fresco depicting the Last Supper was discovered.
This discovery has triggered a series of restoration projects that are bringing to light episodes from the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ. Despite the painting’s apparent simplicity, its charm is not diminished by the scope and continuity of the work, which appears to have been created in at least two phases during the first half of the 16th century. The large Crucifixion scene on the counterfaçade appears to belong to a second pictorial phase, which replaced some earlier scenes that were perhaps no longer popular, while maintaining the original decorative frames intact.
Between the parish church and the oratory of Sant’Agostino was a busy crossroads, connecting the territories of Ceva (and its Marquisate) with those of Liguria and extending along a ridge that provided access to the Monregalese area. On this hill stands another defensive structure, the early medieval chapel of San Giovanni Battista, known locally as “San Giovanni della Langa” for its isolated, elevated position, which offers a panoramic view of the Langhe.
Despite some restoration work, the vault above the altar still contains depictions of the four Evangelists seated in their chairs, albeit with altered pigments. These works are attributed to an artistic culture that flourished around the 1460s and which includes artists such as Segurano Cigna.