A small church situated on the ground floor of a residential building.
The person who purchased the house, which incorporated the church, demolished the entire structure to rebuild the building from scratch, with the aim of restoring the place of worship on the ground floor. To highlight the presence of this sacred space, the structure housing it was set forward by approximately fifteen centimetres, and its top, at eaves level, was crowned with a large triangular pediment in Zandobbio marble. A plinth approximately three metres high, also made of Zandobbio marble with large, chamfered blocks, frames the beautiful 18th-century portal of the original church. The small church has a rectangular plan, flaring outwards to provide more space for the congregation. The area housing the altar facing the congregation, the tabernacle, the ambo and the celebrant’s seat is raised by two steps above the nave. The walls are finished in plaster, whilst the floor, the steps, the altar and the tabernacle platform are made of Zandobbio marble.
HISTORICAL NOTES:
– 1718–1721: In his will of 1708, Gerolamo Castelli di Gandino established a daily chaplaincy for the benefit of the inhabitants of the square, to whom he also entrusted the election of the chaplain, who was to receive an annual salary of 90 scudi. The inhabitants themselves, by a notarial deed dated 1720, ceded all their rights to the noble Counts of Albani, who were then the owners of the palace on the eastern side of the square. In 1721, the Counts erected the church on one side of their house and dedicated it to Pope Saint Pius V. Subsequently, for reasons of inheritance, the church passed into the ownership of the Counts of Suardi;
– 1876: restoration work was carried out both inside and outside the church;
– 1910–1911: the church underwent a drastic reduction in size to make way for the widening of the main road: on that occasion, Count Gianforte Suardi embellished the interior and had the marble façade built.
Source: “Le chiese delle diocesi italiane” https://chieseitaliane.chiesacattolica.it/chieseitaliane/index.jsp
