The parish church of Crescentino is as old as the town: the original chapel was most probably built in 1242, the year the borgo was founded, and in 1486 countess Giovanna Tizzoni had a side chapel dedicated to Saint Peter added to it.
What to see
The present church is later: the first stone was laid in 1546 and the consecration came five years afterwards, when the building was not yet finished. The work closed only in 1580, and in 1592 archbishop Marcantonio Visia raised it to parish status during his pastoral visit. The gabled facade faces west and is divided into two registers marked by pilasters: below, three doorways and two windows; above, the rose window, flanked by two volutes and crowned by the pediment, carrying the image of Saint Crescentinus.
Visiting
Inside, pillars on cruciform bases carry round arches and divide the space into three naves, onto which the side chapels open; the presbytery is raised a few steps and closed by a semicircular apse. Among the works are the fresco of the Martyrdom of Saint Crescentinus and an altarpiece of the Virgin and Child attributed to Guglielmo Caccia, known as il Moncalvo.
Our editors' tip
There is a facade this church never had. In the eighteenth century the architect Ferdinando Bonsignore prepared a design to rebuild it, but the Napoleonic years swept everything away and the drawing stayed on paper. The bell tower, by contrast, is recent: the present one was raised in 1906 to a design by the engineer Canetti, after the earlier tower was pulled down.