The church of San Giovanni Battista is the parish church of Centallo and belongs to the diocese of Cuneo-Fossano. The parish was erected in 1597, and on that occasion the church already standing was enlarged with one more side chapel and with the presbytery. That building has not come down to us: it was demolished in the second half of the eighteenth century and in its place, between 1764 and 1769, the present parish church was built, designed by Francesco Prunotto.
What to see
The front faces west and is divided by a string course into two registers marked off by pilaster strips: below the entrance portal, above a window, and at the top the pediment. The bell tower, set against the church, has a square base and in the belfry a single-light window on each side flanked by pilaster strips; it is closed by a drum carrying a metal spire on an octagonal plan, the part you recognise from a distance. Inside there is a single nave, with the side chapels opening onto it and the walls marked off by pilasters; at the end the presbytery holds the high altar and closes with the semicircular apse.
Visiting
There are three works to look for. The altarpiece shows the Virgin together with Saints Dominic, Rose, Vincent martyr, Victor martyr, Vincent confessor and Martin bishop, and was painted in 1770 by Francesco Cesia of Cuneo: it dates from the year after the works ended, which means it was conceived for this church and not inherited from the earlier one. Then there is the wooden statue of the Virgin of the Rosary, carved by the Turin sculptor Stefano Maria Clemente, and an eighteenth-century canvas with the Madonna and Child and the souls of Purgatory carried to heaven by angels.
Our editors' tip
It is worth looking at this church with a trade in mind that has a recognised tradition in Centallo: organ building. The town is known for making musical instruments, organs both old and modern, and that says something about the kind of musical patronage there was in the district. The parish church is also a good place to start understanding how the town is laid out: it stands in the centre, and from there you can walk to the other churches of the built-up area, among them the chapel of San Giovanni Evangelista, which keeps early sixteenth-century frescoes telling the saint's life in twelve panels.