Santa Maria delle Grazie - detta di San Domenico

piazza San Domenico - 15076 Ovada (AL)
Tel. +39 0143 821043
https://www.cittaecattedrali.it/it/bces/175-chiesa-di-santa-maria-delle-grazie-detta-di-san-domenico-ovada-al

The first stone was laid in 1481, when Father Giovanni from Taggia received the diploma which appointed him Prior of the Convent. A stone placed on the lintel of the door, dated 1508, indicates the construction date as 1481, when Count Antonio Trotti was lord of the city. The simple façade is crowned by a tympanum and presents a single door; the inside presents three naves with transept, the central one covered by a single barrel vault while the lateral aisles of four bays are covered by cross vault. The church underwent many changes over the years and the signs are visible: originally, the masonry brick parts were left visible and the reinforcement of all with wooden trusses are visible. The fast deterioration of the exposed parts, resulted in plastering and whitewashing the interior as early as 1585. Between the 17th and the 18th century, the church was enriched with altars and chapels built by the various families and corporations of the city; the floor began to house sepulchres and tombstones: the area of Piazza San Domenico and the area occupied by the new construction had probably been occupied by a cemetery in the past and perhaps also by a small chapel of which the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie was a probable expansion. Church life was marked by wars and by the suppression of the religious orders and experienced its hardest period when it was transformed into barracks in 1796. Following its restoration in 1815, and the passage of the city under the Savoy Kingdom of Sardinia, the conditions returned for a return to a religious destination; from the new State Property Office the ownership passed to the Municipality that entrusted its use and conservation to the Most Rev. Fathers of the Pious Schools called to Ovada to manage its public education. However, due to the imperative need to restore the roof, the Scolopi Fathers were forced to sell six altars of the side aisles in 1837 causing astonishment among the population and high tension with the same Municipality, which was settled in 1883. Since then, the embellishment and restoration work continued even if some original elements of the church were taken away or destroyed. Of considerable importance is the second altar on the right, an exquisite 17th century work in marble: once the high altar of the old parish church, it was placed here in 1847 after the original one had been sold in 1837. Just as interesting is the altar on the right wall of the transept of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary rich in fine marbles and put in this position in 1706. The central statue of the Madonna is the work of a student of the sculptor Filippo Parodi, himself a student of Bernini; the two side statues represent Saint Caterina of Siena and Saint Domenico. The statue of the Madonna was crowned by 15 small oil paintings (The Mysteries of the Rosary) of which only 8 are original (the other 7 were stolen during the 1980s). The altar is that which previously stood in the place of the high altar of the Church removed to accommodate a larger one.