The church of San Giorgio stands at the top of the hill of Chieri, where in earlier times there was a tenth-century castrum, with a chapel already dedicated to the saint inside it. The Landolfian tower, which served as the civic tower in the time of the Republic of Chieri and as the bell tower, and a first Gothic church date from the fourteenth century. A fire destroyed it in 1412; it was rebuilt in 1442, facing the town, with a nave and two aisles. In the sixteenth century the side chapels were added: those on the right adjoined the convent of the Friars Minor to which the church was linked. The bell tower was restored in 1676 and covered with a pagoda-shaped dome; today's façade is of 1752.
What to see
The façade is by Bernardo Antonio Vittone, who replaced the earlier one, weakened by structural problems. The bell tower rests on a base that appears to be made from a bastion of the castle. As a whole the church bears the marks of different centuries, Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque and Neo-Gothic.
Inside, the decoration with floral motifs is nineteenth-century, by Vincenzo Pangella. The altarpiece of the high altar is a Resurrection of Christ with Saints Francis and Clare, painted in 1615 by Guglielmo Caccia, known as il Moncalvo, and comes from the town's convent of Poor Clares; in the apse four canvases of saints are by Angelo Kirchmayr, of 1899. The first chapel on the right, designed by Vittone, has a God the Father by Moncalvo and a Holy Family with the Massacre of the Innocents by Orsola Maddalena, his daughter. Beneath the high altar is a crypt dedicated to St Michael, entirely frescoed.
Visiting
Opening and Mass times should be checked with the parish or on the tourism website of the town of Chieri.
Our editors' tip
The church keeps a bronze bell of the fifteenth century, damaged: it broke in 1912. And in the third chapel on the right a gilded reliquary bust holds relics attributed to St George.
