Fontanetto Po in the Province of Vercelli
An important town on the borders of the province of Vercelli and the birthplace of the musician Giovan Battista Viotti (1755-1824).
The old town, which took its name from the many springs located throughout the area, was built, according to tradition, by the Benedictine monks of San Genuario di Lucedio in the IX century to assemble the population scattered throughout various villages, of the former Cestis destroyed during the Barbarian invasions.
The oldest part of the town is certainly around the present-day church of St. Sebastian, until 1400 dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, situated east of the town centre and reached by turning left from Corso Massimo Montano and continuing on from piazza Garibaldi.
It dates back to the IX century but later remodelling turned it into one of the jewels of Romanesque-gothic architecture in Vercelli. The bell-gable facade is divided into three by two pilasters which give the illusion of an internal division into three naves; the slightly splayed pointed arch is still visible on the entrance, recently modified to hold the present door. Along the upper edge of the facade, the perimeter walls and the apse the characteristic decoration of intertwined hanging arches is still perfectly preserved. Inside is a single nave, with the roof truss restored in the ’50s; on the side walls are numerous frescoes, unfortunately in a poor state of preservation, showing processions of saints and images of the Virgin with Child: these can be dated between the mid-1400s and the 1500s. The picture of the Madonna’s face visible at the top of the right wall is much more recent: it was painted during the 1915/18 war by a soldier who found lodging, together with a group of fellow soldiers, inside the small church.
Since 1928, at the initiative of the population of Fontanetto, San Sebastiano has become a place of worship of the Roman martyr Saint Pancras (+ 304), whose statue is carried in solemn procession every year on 12 May.
Returning towards the centre of the town, crossing corso Massimo Montano once again one enters the urban layout of the medieval hamlet, characterised by the typical, symmetrical castramentum structure. Two rows of porticoes make for a suggestive walk which some of the most important religious buildings of Fontanetto Po look onto: on the right is the church of the Apostles, built in baroque style between the XVII and XVIII centuries.
The large oval altar piece inside shows Saints Peter and Paul at the feet of the Virgin of the Assumption and bears, held by an angel, the noble coat-of-arms of the Negri family who were patrons of the church. Continuing along via Viotti (where the birthplace of G.B. Viotti, marked by a plaque is situated) on the right one comes to the church of the Holy Trinity, the premises of the Company of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin, a confraternity of brothers already existing prior to 1426.
The construction of the church began in 1488, but in 1523 the building was enlarged for the first time thanks to the offers made by the faithful. Inside is the Nativity of Jesus, attributed to Guglielmo Caccia known as Moncalvo and a painting showing Saint Ursula, by Orsola Caccia. The sculptural composition showing the Deposition of Jesus from the Cross is of particular interest, initially one of the first series of sculptures of the Chapels of the Holy Mount of Varallo. From the deeds of the Confraternity it appears that it was purchased by the Fontanetto brothers in 1568 after a pilgrimage to Varallo: the ten statues were in fact sold after being replaced by a new sculpted group.
Beside the church of Holy Trinity is the ancient Collegiate of the Ursuline Sisters founded in Milan by Angela Merici in 1535. In Fontanetto the earlier community of the Franciscan lay order took the new rule of Merici after 1560 but only took up lodging in Holy Trinity in 1634. Opposite the church of Holy Trinity is the outline of the century-old heart of civil and religious life in Fontanetto: the parish church of St. Martin, built in the Norman style after the town fell under the jurisdiction of the Abbey of Frattuaria in 1011.
It appears that the church was designed by none other than the same Abbot of Frattuaria and architect Guglielmo da Volpino. Of the ancient foundations the sumptuous bell tower in Romanesque normanic style standing 56 metres tall, still remains. First restored in 1500, it was given a new, decorated coffer ceiling which, in danger of collapsing, was replaced by one in masonry in 1793. The external fresco decorations, the remains of which are still visible along via Viotti, are also sixteenth century. The interior, in three naves, contains valuable, seventeenth century liturgical furnishings in carved wood: the pulpit was built at the expense of the community in 1688 by the Biellese carver Giovanni Antonio Aleggia. The choir, situated in the apse behind the eighteenth century main altar, is composed of seventeen stalls, eleven of which are the same age as the pulpit and were made by the same Biellese school of Fleggia and Tempia, the other six were added in 1791 by the craftsman Elia Giuseppe di Casale after the enlargement of the apse following replacement of the main altar. The old altar structure in carved wood which completed the group of liturgical furnishings commissioned by the parish priest Nobile Ovis in the second half of the 1600s, was disassembled and replaced by the present one in 1787. Some panels showing scenes from the Old and New Testaments form the base of the ministers’ bench. Lastly, inside the parish church the Crucifix traditionally known as “Il Signore Grande” is particularly valuable: it was commissioned from the Artisan Giovanni Francesco Biancardi of Trino by the Confraternity of the Holy Cross on 7 November 1585. Restored in 1894, the four panels placed at the ends of the cross showing scenes from the Passion and taken from the old main altar were added.
Coming out of the parish church and going along via Viotti once again one reaches the last religious building on this itinerary: the church of St. Rocco of 1759, symbolically placed at the opposite end of the town from the church of St. Sebastian, as if to represent a bulwark of defence from the plague and viral diseases so widespread in the Vercelli countryside long ago.
Old Mill
From the propulsive force of water, The Old Mill – Rice-mill of San Giovanni (until 1949 the property of the noble family Tournon and later owned by the Gardano family), after terminating its productive life in 1992 given that it could no longer compete with the more modern industrial plants, was made part of the Ecomuseum of Terre D’Acqua, given that the historic and environmental importance of this old mill has been recognised at a national level.
Built at the same time as the Camera artificial canal was dug at the behest of the Marquis Guglielmo del Monferrato in 1465, it was destroyed during the wars of Monferrato and rebuilt in 1699. But, like many other mills, this too abandoned its primary function of grinding cereals and was used in the sphere of rice-growing.
Today, the rice mill still offers an opportunity to discover the old methods of processing rice, offering interesting guided tours of the building during which you can admire the old machinery working solely on the power of the water and learn about the variety and number of stages leading to the production of what is still today one of the most important products of the Vercelli plains.
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