Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Santuario della Madonna del Carmine)
Highlights
Built in the early 1400s, the shrine was enlarged between the 17th and 18th centuries with Baroque decorations.
It underwent restoration work in 1964.
It stands in a panoramic position.
Even before the Church of Carmine was erected, an older sacred building stood on the same Valcazara hill, which, incorporated wholly or in part into the 15th-century one, now forms its first bay of the left aisle.
Restorations carried out between 1964 and 1975, revealed in the part of the building corresponding to the meeting of the left aisle with the last bay before the presbytery structural and figurative elements referable to the Romanesque age: these are in particular the cross vault and the frescoes depicting the four evangelists distributed on the segments of the same.
Regarding the construction of the building, there are many often unsubstantiated reports, however, the friars of the first Carmelite nucleus certainly officiated there. In this regard, a bull has been found in which it is revealed that Father Emanuel begged the Pope for permission to be allowed to build domum cum dormitorio, claustro, cimiterio, campanili, campana, ortis, ortaliciis et aliis officinis...; Father Emanuel, therefore, had not asked nor had the Pope granted him to erect a church because, in fact, on that lonely knoll there already existed a place of worship, lacking perhaps a bell tower because the Pope was asked to build it
An overall look at the masonry structures preserved to date highlights the differences existing between elements of the same kind such as the keystones, capitals and plinths of the pillars and, on the outside, the numerous traces of openings later plugged that make it difficult, in the absence of documentation, the attempt to establish a chronological succession of the building's extension and renovation works
Regarding to the dedication of the church, it can be noted that in the file kept in the general archives of the Carmelite Order in Rome, it is placed under the invocation of S.M. Assunta in Cielo and its construction is attributed to 1314.
This attribution, however, finds no other confirmation even though the Carmelites dedicated temples erected and officiated by them to the cult of the Annunciation. The sacred building in question turns out to be called the "Carmine" as early as its first appearance in the bull of 1413.
A notarial deed of August 28, 1595, however, mentions a chapel of the Annunciation included in the church-convent building complex.
This title was also referred to by the fresco reproduced on the rose window of which faint traces could still be glimpsed when restoration work was begun. The fresco probably could not be saved.
A large oil painting recalling the Annunciation, now no longer in the church as it was moved to St. Anthony's, adorned the altar in the left aisle.
Insights
Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.
https://it.wikipedia.org
- Santuario della Madonna del Carmine (Incisa Scapaccino)
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santuario_della_Madonna_del_Carmine_(Incisa_Scapaccino)
Piemontesacro.it
https://www.piemontesacro.it/
- Santuario Madonna del Carmine (Incisa Scapaccino)
https://www.piemontesacro.it/santuari_asti/santuario_madonna_del_carmine_incisa_scapaccino.htm
BeWeb - Beni Ecclesiastici in WEB
https://beweb.chiesacattolica.it/
See also...
• Incisa Scapaccino tourist guide
