Piazza Maggiore

Mondovì – All the streets in the town of Piazza (550 meters on sea level) lead to the big square: an asymmetric, original gothic square surrounded by a portico. On it there are the red Bressano house, with its merlons (XIII century), the palaces of the governor, the ancient town hall (today the public library) and other buildings of that era.

On the southern side there’s the astonishing contrast of the baroque gesuit church and college. The church, dedicated to San Francesco Saverio and called “della Missione”, has been built in 1655 on a project by Giovenale Boetto and completed in 1733.

It has a single baroque nave, with red columns, frames and wooden decorations, and frescos (1675-77) by Andrea Pozzo, a painter with a great sense of proportions and perspective (his paintings and frescos are also in Rome and Wien).

The glory of the saint is celebrated with a head-spinning series of scenes, making hte whole church seem endlessly wide. Pozzo is also the author of the external balcony and the altar in wood and linen.

Beside the church there’s the gesuits’ college, with a various and elegant facade in terracotta.