Discover Chiesa di San Martino, La Morra

The chiesa di San Martino is the parish church of La Morra, in the Langhe, and the first church built in the territory of the comune. San Martino is the village's patron.

Its date is given two ways by the same source, and both are reported here. The church is described as built in 1699; and it is also recorded as having been begun in 1684 and completed in 1695. Nothing reconciles the two.

It is a testimony to the architectural work of Michelangelo Garove (1650–1713), whose task was to compose, on a public space and in a raised position above the village, a sacred building. Garove is the reason a small hill town has a church of this quality.

Inside, on the high altar, is a pala showing the Madonna and Child with saints Martin and Crispin, by Giovanni Carlo Aliberti, 1715.

The building was paid for by the village. The church and the priest's house were built at the community's expense, while the high altar was raised with the money of a certain "Messer Bartolomeo Mascarello", as an inscription placed on it records.

The church is Piedmontese Baroque of the late 17th century, and its interest is that it is by a named architect of standing rather than by a local builder.

Michelangelo Garove (1650–1713) worked in the orbit of the Savoy court, and the commission here is described in terms of composition: a sacred building on a public space, in an elevated position over the village. The siting is the design decision, and it governs everything else — the church is the head of the village, not an element within it.

The casa canonica of 1713 extends the composition onto the same square, and its connection to the presbytery through the sacristy is a planning move rather than a decorative one.

The interior as it now reads is substantially 19th-century in its surfaces. The nave vault carries Luigi Morgari's paintings of 1879–1880; the side chapel vaults were repainted in the same campaign of works; the stuccoes and ornaments were patched. Only the Aliberti pala of 1715 and the altar beneath it survive from the church's own century in the places the eye goes first.

The enlarged flank openings are the clearest departure from Garove's building: a 19th-century decision to let in more light, taken at the cost of the original wall.

This church was built by a village that did not have to, and the record of who paid for which part survives.

The community funded the fabric. Both the canonica and the sacred building were constructed at the expense of the community — a parish of farmers commissioning a court architect.

One man funded the altar. The high altar was erected thanks to the financing of a certain "Messer Bartolomeo Mascarello", and an inscription placed on the altar records it.

The campaign ran from 1684 to 1695 on one reading of the record, with 1699 given elsewhere. The casa canonica followed in 1713, tied into the presbytery by way of the sacristy.

The 19th century rebuilt the inside twice. First the authorised campaign of 1868–1869, under the Archpriest's direction, which the Sub-prefect had blocked three years earlier; then, after the fire of 11 January 1874, the replacement of destroyed furnishings and the commissioning of Luigi Morgari in 1879–1880 for the nave vault.

When was it built? The record gives two answers: begun 1684 and completed 1695, and separately built in 1699. The discrepancy is in the source and is not resolved.

Who designed it? Michelangelo Garove (1650–1713), asked to compose a sacred building on a public space in a raised position above the village.

Is it the oldest church in La Morra? It is the first church built in the territory of La Morra.

What is the painting over the altar? The Madonna and Child with saints Martin and Crispin, by Giovanni Carlo Aliberti, 1715.

Why do the vault paintings look later than the church? Because they are. The church burned on 11 January 1874, and Luigi Morgari painted the present nave vault in 1879–1880.

Who paid for it? The community paid for the church and the priest's house. The high altar was paid for by a certain "Messer Bartolomeo Mascarello", named in an inscription on it.

Can I just turn up? You can try the door. No hours are given, and a village parish church is most reliably open around a service.