Santuario di Vicoforte - (CN)

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The Vicoforte Sanctuary, also known as the Shrine Basilica of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary or Queen Montis Regalis Sanctuary-Basilica is a church located in the municipality of Vicoforte.

THE TEMPLE

The valley dell'Ermena was crowded with thousands of pilgrims, not only ordinary people experienced hunger and fatigue, but also princes, dukes and lords. The rush of the crowds gave rise to the idea in the mind of the Bishop of a great temple to accommodate them. The project was seconded by Duke Carlo Emanuele I of Savoy, who thought of the church as a burial place of the family. After much discussion, he came to the same intervention Duke, the choice of the project architect Ascanio Vitozzi, which provided for the shape ellipses, a novelty in the time of mannerism.

The laying of the foundation stone of the new grand temple took place in a solemn 7 July 1596. intervened the ducal family, several tens of thousands of people along with hundreds of brotherhoods and religious associations.

In 1615 the architect died and the work slowed up to be suspended following the death of the Duke in 1630 and to the general conditions of social and economic crisis. On the death of Vitozzi the wall structure was 12 meters, that is, tax the arches.

Construction resumed in 1672 under the leadership of the Cistercian monks, who had settled, starting from 1613, called by the Duke, in the adjacent monastery. Towards the end of '600 they were made the main lobby, the two atria and the side chapel of St. Bernard, in which he was able to transport the body of Charles Emmanuel I; He was almost finished the chapel of St. Benedict, the bell tower completed in the north east, the sacristy and the vault of the apse. The construction had reached 18 and a half meters in height, including the arches. Large parties at the 'coronation in 1682: for the first time sounded the invocation "Queen Montis Regalis, ora pro nobis".

In 1701, Francesco Gallo, architect monregalese valuable, took care of the building on behalf of the Administration. The mighty drum that holds the elliptical dome (the height of the base of the dome is 60 meters) was built in the early eighteenth century and stands imperiously to define the central body of the beautiful building. The huge dome, the largest in the world in elliptical (37.15 to 24.80 meters), was built in 1731. The bold cupola (15 meters high) was finished in 1733.

He does not escape the observer the diversity of styles of the four bell towers, completed, renovated and decorated in the late nineteenth. Remain to witness the long and arduous path construction of the temple, the tenacious journey of faith and grateful devotion to the Madonna del Pilone, Regina Montis Regalis.