Cathedral · Medieval–Baroque · Casale Monferrato, Piedmont

Duomo di Sant’Evasio — Casale Monferrato Cathedral

The Cathedral of Sant’Evasio is the Roman Catholic cathedral of Casale Monferrato, seat of the Diocese of Casale Monferrato, dedicated to Saint Evasius, the city’s first bishop and martyr. Founded in the early medieval period and substantially rebuilt in the Romanesque style during the 12th century, the cathedral’s most remarkable feature is its spectacular early-16th-century gilded ceiling — one of the most elaborate painted wooden ceilings in northern Italy — executed by Gerolamo Pittoni between 1503 and 1529.

At a glance

Type: Roman Catholic cathedral (episcopal seat)
Period: Origins early medieval; Romanesque rebuild 12th century; ceiling 1503–1529
Style: Romanesque with later Renaissance and Baroque additions
Location: Casale Monferrato, Province of Alessandria, Piedmont, Italy
Coordinates: 45.1373° N, 8.4503° E

Overview

Casale Monferrato Cathedral stands as the principal church of one of Piedmont’s historically significant episcopal sees, tracing its origins to the early Christianisation of the Monferrato territory. The building as seen today combines a Romanesque body with Renaissance decorative intervention, most prominently in its extraordinary coffered wooden ceiling, and reflects the patronage of the Paleologa marquisate that made Casale one of the most cultured courts in 15th- and 16th-century northern Italy. The cathedral is the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Casale Monferrato.

History

Saint Evasius, to whom the cathedral is dedicated, was the first bishop of Asti and is venerated as a martyr; his cult became associated with Casale, where he was said to have been killed in the late 4th or early 5th century. A church on the site is documented from the early medieval period, and the current Romanesque structure was substantially completed by the 12th century. Under the Paleologa marquisate of Monferrato, the cathedral was enriched with a celebrated painted and gilded wooden ceiling commissioned from Gerolamo Pittoni, completed in 1529, which transformed the interior into one of the most visually opulent in Piedmont. Subsequent centuries brought Baroque modifications to chapels and furnishings.

What you see

The cathedral’s interior is dominated by its magnificent 16th-century coffered ceiling, whose hundreds of painted compartments are gilded and adorned with devotional imagery, heraldic motifs, and decorative foliage in a programme that reflects both Renaissance taste and the ambitions of the Paleologa court. The Romanesque nave preserves its original proportions, with stone columns and arcades typical of the Lombard Romanesque school. Chapels along the nave contain altarpieces and sculptures spanning the 16th through 18th centuries, and the treasury holds important medieval and early modern liturgical objects. The crypt preserves relics associated with the cathedral’s founding tradition.

Cultural significance

The cathedral’s gilded ceiling is considered one of the outstanding examples of Renaissance decorative woodwork in northern Italy, comparable in ambition to celebrated ceilings in Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy. The building as a whole documents the artistic culture of the Monferrato marquisate at its height and the continuity of Christian worship on a site venerated for over fifteen centuries. It is protected as a national monument and attracts art historians and heritage travellers alongside the local faithful.

Practical information

Address: Piazza Mazzini, Casale Monferrato, Province of Alessandria, Piedmont, Italy
Opening hours: Check official website or contact the Diocese of Casale Monferrato for current visiting hours
Admission: Cathedral: free; treasury may require admission

Getting there

Casale Monferrato is served by a railway station on the Turin–Alessandria line, approximately 1 hour from Turin and 30 minutes from Alessandria. The cathedral is in the historic centre, walkable from the station. By car, take the A26 motorway to the Casale Monferrato Nord exit.

Sources & resources

Find it on the map

Google Maps See the location on a full map → Street View Walk around the place virtually → OpenStreetMap Free community cartography →

Dedicated to Saints Evasius, Projetus, Natale and St. Lawrence, it was consecrated on January 7 of the year 1107 by Pope Paschal II, on the site where a temple dedicated to Jupiter existed as early as the first century AD and later a church from the Liutprandean period dedicated to the martyr Lawrence.



Set on fire in 1215, following the war between the Casalesi and Alessandrini, the Vercellesi, Pavesi and Milanese, it was heavily restored in the 1850s by Vercelli architect Count Edoardo Arborio Mella, at the behest of Bishop Lugi Nazari of Calabiana, architect and archaeologist Luigi Canina and Abbot Antonio Rosmini, against the advice of Antonelli.



It turns out to this day to be one of the most interesting Lombard Romanesque-style cathedrals in Piedmont.



The interior rooms of the Romanesque Cathedral dedicated to St. Evasius are home to the Open Sacristy Route and the Archaeological Route of the attics where many precious reliquaries, golds, textile artifacts of particular value and significant works of sacred art are on display.



Notable among the textiles is the chasuble that belonged to Pius V (16th century).



From the ambulatory, which houses parts of the ancient church&#39;s mosaic flooring on the walls that can be dated to the mid-12th century and sculptures from the 12th-16th centuries, we move on to the sacristies in which paintings by Gaudenzio Ferrari, Giorgio Alberini, Pietro Francesco Guala, among others, are preserved.



The tour ends at the 18th-century Chapel of St. Evasius, which leads inside the church hall where a majestic 12th-century wood and silver crucifix is housed.



During the ascent one can admire the medieval structure freed from the thick nineteenth-century plasters in which the openings of the single lancet window on the south side and the access to the external apsidal loggia stand out. Once you reach the access to the attics by means of a metal walkway, suspended on the extrados of the vaults, you walk through the entire southern portion of the building that reveals first the hanging arch crowning of the nave and then, in succession, the ancient structures of the transept nave where the mullioned window freed from the nineteenth-century window frame shines.



Just where the path will seem to end, the visitor will be able to plunge into the limbs of medieval architecture to reach the most hidden decorative elements and then find himself, after an almost vertical descent into the wall thickness, the women&#39;s galleries of the atrium. Here all the details of the 20th-century sculptural elements and the majesty of the great cross-arched vault can be admired up close.



During White Night and at city events, the museum conducts evening tours.

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Duomo di Sant’Evasio di Casale Monferrato