The church of the Assumption is the main place of worship in Ovada and faces piazza Assunta, one of the focal points of the twice-weekly market, opposite palazzo Borgatta, recognisable by its curved corner because it was built on the tower of the Genoa Gate. At the end of the eighteenth century the old parish church of San Bartolomeo was no longer enough for a growing population: in 1770 it was decided to build a larger one.
What to see
The design went to the architect Gio Antonio Delfrate, from Como, who took his cue from the baroque basilica of Santa Maria delle Vigne in Genoa. Work began in 1772 and ended nine years later, in 1781, but consecration came only in 1801, and with it the new dedication to the Assumption. The twin bell towers, forty-seven metres high, were in the original design but were built decades apart: the right one in 1808, the left one in 1853.
Visiting
Inside, the plan is a Latin cross, three naves with side chapels, a transept and a deep apse, sixty metres long. The lunetted barrel vault of the central nave stands twenty metres above the floor and is entirely frescoed with scenes from the life of Mary, the work of Pietro Ivaldi, who painted all the vaults in the church; the side naves are separated by serliane on Corinthian stucco columns painted to imitate marble. The neoclassical high altar, in polychrome marble, was designed by Alessandro Antonelli.
Our editors' tip
There are two organs and it is worth asking to see both. The main one, on the counter-facade inside a carved and gilded wooden case, was built in 1896 by Carlo Vegezzi-Bossi following the Cecilian reform, with thirty-three stops. The second stands on the floor of the apse, behind the altar, a small instrument by the English organ builder William George Trice, made to accompany the singing.