The chapel of San Rocco belongs to the complex of the castle of Trofarello. Count Giacinto Amedeo Vagnone, bishop of Alba and abbot of San Mauro della Pulcherado, commissioned it in 1762 and gave the design to Vittone; on 16 August 1774 the count himself consecrated its altar.
What to see
The plan is elliptical and so is the vault, painted with coffers. Six pairs of pilaster strips with false fluting and Corinthian capitals stand against the walls and carry an entablature: between one pair and the next the entablature arches, and in the space it leaves along the sides two heart-shaped windows open. The altar, baroque and made of rich polychrome marbles, holds the statue of San Rocco; decorative friezes and a balustrade painted in perspective complete the interior.
Visiting
The facade is convex and divided into two orders by a band of metopes and triglyphs: below, the doorway with a triangular pediment; above, another heart-shaped window with a mixtilinear frame; and at the top a pediment with four torch-shaped vases. In the tympanum is the Vagnone coat of arms, banded silver and green with a red sword on the second band. The chapel reaches us in good condition thanks to the restoration carried out between 1997 and 1999, which recovered frescoes and decorations, renewed floor and frames and repaired the front: before that, abandonment had left it in a bad way.
Our editors' tip
There is an attribution puzzle worth knowing. In 1958 the Piedmontese painter Pina Martellini painted this chapel and titled the picture Cappella dello Juvarra a Trofarello: a sign that some assigned it to Juvarra rather than to Vittone. Look at it with that doubt in mind, it is the quickest way to notice how carefully it is built, ellipse after ellipse.