The church built at the beginning of the 18th century on the remains of the Castelletto is a baroque jewel. The driveway was longer, reaching up to the height of the old weight’s parking lot
IVREA. It is a street that, despite being in a very central position, is not easy to find for those arriving from outside and whose existence, even if it may seem strange, is often unknown to the Ivrea people themselves, perhaps due to the tall buildings that, practically entrance obscure the view culminating in one of the baroque jewels of Ivrea, the church of San Gaudenzio.
Gone are the times when the short hill showed the religious building and the nearby Casa Gillio in the greenery, to which one arrived between gardens and walls on which stood the characteristic, white pillars in stone and lime, today there are two huge condominiums which, however, cannot completely erase its ancient beauty. Once, in fact, on the threshold of the church and looking around, the perspective changes: on the one hand, beyond the gate of what was once the Casa Gillio, creepers and tall trees appear, on the other there are buildings from the early 1900s, at height contained and proportionate to the church, between which the street narrows to an alley at the end of which a very high pine stands out behind the sacristy and choir.
For several years the recreational-cultural association i Croass del Borghet, in addition to taking care of it, has tried, as far as possible, to counteract and denounce its degradation, prodding the Municipality to which the property belongs, so that it does not neglect it and find the resources to safeguard its important artistic value, heritage of the Ivrea community.
Emilia Sabolo, one of the Croass, tells the story of the small but precious church: «It was built between 1716 and 1724, on the remains of the fortification called Castelletto which had been destroyed by the French in 1705. The superintendence was entrusted to the provost of the Cathedral , Lorenzo Pinchia, and the municipality, together with the generous offers of the citizens, provided to finance the construction site. Ten years after the construction of the central body, the sacristy and the room above it were added, while, in 1742, the construction of the elegant bell tower began. It is documented that the construction was supported by a great popular fervor, testimony of the devotion to the figure of San Gaudenzio, born in Ivrea in the fourth century after Christ, the period of the first Christianization of Piedmont ». “We do not know – he continues – the name of the architect who designed it: hypotheses have been advanced about Bernardo Vittone, but his very young age at the time makes his intervention credible only regarding the subsequent enlargement works in 1742. It remains, instead, the attribution to the architect Carlo Andrea Guibert, whose presence in Ivrea in the early 1700s is testified by other interventions, such as the church of San Lorenzo and the Bishop’s Palace, is more accredited, although not documented. Luca Rossetti da Orta painted the valuable internal frescoes in 1738, in the figurative and quadrature parts. Mastro Agostino Rama was instead the executor of the stuccos ». “Among the curiosities – underlines Sabolo – on the step in front of the church portal there is a fossil that is also present on the threshold of the Cathedral of Novara, also dedicated to San Gaudenzio. Legend has it that the stone on which the polychrome marble altar was built retains the imprint of the saint’s body. The frescoes, on the other hand, depict episodes from the life and miracles of the Saint, performed by him or attributed to him. Despite a restoration carried out around 2008, unfortunately they are again threatened by humidity due to the too long closure of the church and would need new care ». «The Municipality – he underlines – grants us the building to host cultural events of various kinds, while Don Duretto, the parish priest of San Grato, the parish church of Borghetto, has the religious care of it, as the building is still consecrated. In these years of managing the church we have collaborated with other associations for initiatives and activities and, above all, with schools, bringing classes of students to discover its architectural and artistic values, in addition to the stories of the saint depicted on the walls ».
Outside the church, the short street, which in ancient times was a little longer and reached the height of the parking lot obtained in the area of the old public weight. And that it had, on the right, at number 551, at the corner with via Miniere, the vast headquarters of the Pilatone and Bianco company, master builders selling cement, lime, gypsum, bricks, pipes and cement tiles.
The current Via Camillo Olivetti, built in 1936, crosses what used to be the courtyard of the company (where the Pilatone house was also located, renovated with great taste in the 1930s and now owned by Emilia Sabolo). Next to the church runs the boundary wall and the entrance to what was once the Casa Gillio, later transformed into a two-storey villa, of which the scholars Maria Grazia Imarisio and Diego Surace, in their volume Architecture of the early 1900s in the Canavese area, they highlight “The rostrum motifs, the embossed decorations, the worked irons and the lanterns that validate a successful stylistic coherence are original in the design and refined in the workmanship.” The villa, which was granted as a residence to the director of the nearby Soie de Chatillon, a manufacturer of artificial textile fibers, is still known today as Villa Rollone, from the name of the engineer Luigi who lived there in the 1950s, despite the fact that it later belonged to the Dr. Aliberti and then to the accountant Giugler, the current owner.