Basilica di S.M. Assunta in Carignano

Description:

• The story behind this church is quite amusing as it was built according to a request left by Bendinello Sauli in his will, in order to humiliate the Fieschi family who had committed a grave injustice towards him (they had started mass in their nobleman's church without waiting for the Sauli family!). It took 70 years to collect the money for the construction, which was left in the hands of Galeazzo Alessi, a Perugian architect. Thus the most imposing Renaissance church in Genoa began construction in the mid 1500s, and it was entirely finished in 1602 when the dome was finished. Since then it has undergone very few changes. It is built in the shape of a Greek cross inscribed into a square, with a central dome held by four supports, clearly inspired by the plans of Antonio da Sangallo il Giovane for St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The decoration is very plain with four statues placed in the niches carved into the support columns. Two of these statues were sculpted by Pierre Puget. There is also a seventeenth century organ and several interesting paintings by Guercino, Aurelio Lomi and G. Cesare Procaccini. Service times: Saturdays 6pm; Sundays 8.30am, 10.30am, 11.30am, 6.30pm.
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