Santa Maria Maggiore is the parish church of Poirino. The first mention of a church here dates from 1250 and calls it Santa Maria del Porcile; the new building was begun in 1442 and consecrated on 13 April 1492 by monsignor Bernardino Vacca, vicar of archbishop Domenico della Rovere. In the sixteenth century the church was desecrated by French troops, and for that reason it had to be consecrated a second time.
What to see
The stepped front faces west and is divided into two registers by a projecting string course, both marked out by pilasters and adorned with recessed panels. Below is the main doorway, crowned by a medallion with a fresco of the Annunciation, with the side entrances beside it and two niches holding statues of Saint Joseph and Saint Roch; above, between two volutes, the oval rose window and the triangular pediment. The front is more recent than it looks: it was built in 1912 to a design by the engineer Francesco Casabella.
Visiting
Inside, three naves divided by piers with half-columns carrying round arches: the central one is covered by a barrel vault, the side ones by cross vaults, and the chapels open onto them. At the end is the presbytery, raised three steps, with the marble high altar and the apse. The two chapels were created in the eighteenth century, when the church was enlarged.
Our editors' tip
Among the works are the Annunciation altarpiece painted in 1843 by Jaques Guille and the frescoes by Roberto Bonelli with the Deposition, the Presentation of Mary at the Temple, the Visitation and the Adoration of the Magi. It is worth looking at them in that order, because they are episodes of the same story and the church has laid them along the walls as a sequence to follow.