One of the eleven bells in the peal is a survivor: the “Din-Din”, cast in 1660, which the people of Masone rescued around 1890 on its way to the foundry, when the parish's old bells were sent off to be melted down. The church that holds it, by contrast, is a twentieth-century building. Archpriest Monsignor Vittorio Macciò wanted it because the parish church of Nostra Signora Assunta — today the seat of the confraternity — had become too small and stood outside the new village. The design is by the architect Giuseppe Massardo; the site opened in the 1920s and the church was inaugurated in 1927, although the frescoes and decoration were finished only in the 1970s. With its three naves it is the largest church in the diocese of Acqui.
What to see
The plan is three naves in baroque taste, very broad and well lit. What is missing counts as much as what is there: the original design called for a dome over the altar and two side transepts, never built for lack of funds and of room. The facade was taken up again and completed for the Jubilee of 2000 by archpriest Monsignor Rinaldo Cartosio, with new marbles, columns and statues.
Inside, the frescoes are by Carlo Morgari and by Bevilacqua: the vaults are by the latter, with the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and scenes from the lives of the saints and of Jesus. The stained glass was made by the master glassworker Luigi Costa of Alessandria, while the interior work was brought to an end by archpriest don Guido Brema. On the gallery above the entrance stands the pipe organ by Parodi e Marin, dated 1941 and restored in 2001 by the Fratelli Marin, who built the present wooden case with its geometric design: electric action, 34 stops, a movable console with two keyboards and a pedalboard.
Visiting
The church stands in piazza Monsignor Vittorio Macciò, named after the man who wanted it, in the middle of Masone in the Stura valley. The village falls within the metropolitan city of Genoa, but the parish — Cristo Re e Nostra Signora Assunta — belongs to the diocese of Acqui, in the Ovadese-Genovese pastoral area: an anomaly that also explains the local record, since it is here that the Piedmontese diocese has its largest place of worship. Hours are those of the services; the old Assunta parish church, a short walk away, fits into the same round.
Our editors' tip
Come for a solemnity and listen: the peal is in low B major, eight swinging bells and three fixed, the largest in the diocese and the first in Liguria. Ten of them were cast by the Capanni firm on 7 August 1959 from bronze and copper given by local families — the iron collected was sold instead, to raise the money — and they rang for the first time on 13 September 1959, at the hour when bells all over Italy were ringing for the consecration of the country to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Among them, retuned from D to D sharp, the “Din-Din” still hangs. The whole set weighs about 152 quintals, a little over fifteen tonnes.