Cattedrale Nostra Signora Assunta

piazza Duomo, 4 - 15011 Acqui Terme (AL)
Tel. +39 0144.322381
E-mail: dongiorgiosanti@libero.it
https://www.diocesiacqui-piemonte.it/

Begun by Bishop Primo (989-1018) and consecrated in 1067 by San Guido, Bishop and Patron Saint of the city. The plan is a Latin cross divided into five naves. From the Romanesque period are visible the apses and the important crypt which occupies the area of the transept of the choir; between the 16th and the 19th century the internal decoration with stuccos and frescoes are completely renewed. The bell tower, on the facade, was completed in 1479; the 17th century pronaos harmonises with the lateral porticoes which delimit piazza del Duomo. Worthy of attention are the main portal, work of Giovanni Antonio Pilacorte (1481) and inside, the pulpit built in the first half of the 19th century, reusing Renaissance marble slabs and the Baptistery in Rococo style. In the transept, to the left, the Baroque altar of San Guido with the altarpiece by the Genoese David Corte.

The Chapter House is home to the Triptych of the Madonna of Montserrat, a masterpiece by the Spanish painter Bartolomeo Bermejo, in Latin he signed himself as Rubeus, a major exponent of Spanish-Flemish painting of the late 15th century. It was commissioned around 1480 by Francesco Della Chiesa, a noble merchant from Acqui resident in Spain with a well-established business, to be located in the family chapel which was about to be built in the cathedral. At the centre, it portrays the Virgin of Montserrat with the child and the merchant. The Madonna is sitting on a saw (which represents Montserrat where the celebrated Catalan sanctuary stands, which means precisely serrated mountain), while she holds the Baby Jesus in her arms as she gazes at a goldfinch tied to a string. The side panels show from top left the Birth of the Virgin, at the bottom Saint Francis receiving the stigmata, top right the Purification and at the bottom, Saint Sebastian dressed in typical clothes holding arrows. With the panels closed, the Triptych presents the Annunciation. The Chapter house is also home to an altarpiece of the Lombard School of 1496 and the Annunciation, by Valerio Castello of 1645.

Inside the Cathedral you can admire the frescoes of the vault masterpiece of Pietro Ivaldi known as "Il Muto", while the frescoes of the main apse with its vaults covered by Baroque stuccos and frescoes dated 1668 are works by Giovanni Monevi who also painted the great "Assumption of the Virgin" and the large canvas depicting San Guido painted by David Corte in 1645. On the right side of the Cathedral is the Cloister of the Canons, completed in 1495.


Opening times: every day from 7.30 am - 12 pm and 3 pm - 6 pm. Mass times: weekdays 7.30 am and 6 pm; pre-holidays 6 pm; holidays 8 am - 11 am and 6 pm