Maria Vergine Assunta Church

Tradition has it that this eighteenth century church was planned and designed by the Count and architect Carlo Francesco Rangone, whose work can be seen in many religious buildings scattered throughout the Langhe.

This attribution however, was influenced by the charm of the Count’s fame and the people’s will to have a local church built by this feudal lord who owned Montelupo.

In fact, and no doubt more prosaically, the church’s project was designed and the work was completed in 1770 by a humble middle-class man from Alba, the engineer Lorenzo Francesco Bergui, of which there is little information [1].

The new Maria Vergine Assunta Parish faces perpendicular to the road that crosses the town and the facade of the ancient Santa Maria parish.

It is completely covered with terracotta and the facade is divided into two rectangular orders, the second of which is topped by a tympanum with frames. Placards have been added to the lateral joining volutes which connect the first order to the second and serve to connect the sideways movement of the pediment at the base of the facade.

The costs of the work were incurred by the Community of Montelupo and it is quite probable that the Count Francesco Rangone helped out financially. The fonts are dedicated in his name and it was the count who erected the altar and the family tomb, which were unfortunately demolished and removed after 1970.

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[1]What we know of Lorenzo Francesco Bergui is that he was an engineer, architect and a measurer. As an expert Technician and measurer, he carried out the design for restructuring the Magliano Alfieri «town hall», he carried out the technical-legal work for the San Lazzaro hospital in Alba (designed by the architect Filippo Nicolis di Robilant and not as another tradition has it by the count Francesco Rangone), he erected the Roddino parish tower bell and did work for the Pilgrims Confraternity in Alba.