Biella Cathedral: Episcopal Seat and Parish Church in Italy
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Savoy, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of Sardinia
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page13 sections
History
Biella Cathedral is the principal Roman Catholic church of Biella, Italy, and the official seat of the bishop of the Diocese of Biella. Its present form reflects construction and rebuilding from 1402 to 1826 in a Neo-Gothic character, an architectural revival of medieval Gothic forms. The church has served as the cathedral of the diocese since 1772 and continues to function as a parish church. It is dedicated to Saint Stephen, an early Christian martyr traditionally regarded as the first Christian martyr.
Medieval Origins
An eleventh-century church occupied the site before the present cathedral. It was a small wooden building, and some of its capitals survive. The cathedral also developed within a wider medieval complex connected with the chapter of Saint Stephen. During the Middle Ages, the present Piazza Duomo formed a cloister bordered by religious buildings associated with that chapter.
Construction of the masonry church of Saint Mary Major, also known as Saint Mary in Piano, began in 1402. The work fulfilled a vow made by the people of Biella after the plague of 1399. The church later became the cathedral when the Diocese of Biella was created in 1772.
Cathedral Rebuilding and Later Completion
After the diocese was established, Ignazio Antonio Giulio directed a major rebuilding in the Neo-Gothic style. The principal phase lasted from 1772 to 1803 and added two side aisles and side chapels. It also introduced a sacristy, a chapter house used for meetings of the cathedral chapter, and a burial place for the canons, the clergy serving that chapter.
In 1784, the presbytery, the area around the main altar reserved for the clergy, was separated or remodelled in a design attributed to Giovannino Galliari. During the long episcopate of Bishop Giovanni Pietro Losana, the nave and the counterfacade received painted decoration following directives from Canon Giuseppe Antonio Gromo. The dedication to Saint Stephen was adopted in 1806.
The building reached its later form through further extensions. The aisles were lengthened, and Felice Marandono constructed a Neo-Gothic pronaos, or entrance porch, in 1826. The ancient church of Saint Stephen Vecchio, traditionally attributed origins in the fifth century, was demolished in 1872. It had stood parallel to the cathedral, within the block where the surviving Gothic bell tower now stands.
Rite, Procession, and Heritage
Although the Eusebian rite, a local liturgical tradition associated with the Diocese and later Archdiocese of Vercelli, was suppressed in 1575, the cathedral continued a related Easter proclamation until the 1980s. At Epiphany, the date of Easter was sung through Plebs sancta Deo deserviens. Its text appears in a sixteenth-century evangeliary, a liturgical book containing Gospel readings, which had passed from the patriarchal rite into the Eusebian rite. This practice replaced the Noveritis, the formal Easter-date announcement of the Roman liturgy.
In 1940, Biella Cathedral was designated a national monument. In 1949, the Black Madonna of the Sanctuary of Oropa was carried in procession through the boroughs of the Diocese of Biella. The cathedral commemorated that event in 2009 with an exhibition of explanatory panels.
Remains
The cathedral forms part of a larger medieval group that includes a Gothic campanile, or bell tower, an eleventh-century Romanesque baptistery, the diocesan seminary, and the building known as the Provostry House. The church’s surviving fabric combines the earlier site with the masonry construction, extensions, and Neo-Gothic additions made between 1402 and 1826. Brick is identified among its construction materials.
Cathedral Fabric and Interior
Aisles, Chapels, and Chapter Buildings
The two side aisles and the side chapels belong principally to the rebuilding carried out between 1772 and 1803. The same phase produced the sacristy, chapter house, and canons’ burial place, adding spaces for worship, administration, and the clergy associated with the cathedral chapter. The aisles were later extended as part of the completion work that continued to 1826.
Painted Interior
The interior walls are covered with trompe-l’oeil painting, a technique that creates the illusion of architectural elements and three-dimensional forms. Giovannino Galliari and other artists executed the decoration in 1784. Its treatment is austere and uses relatively subdued colors, linking the interior appearance to the eighteenth-century remodelling.
Organ and Choir Loft
The organ stands on the choir loft along the right-hand wall of the presbytery. Camillo Guglielmo Bianchi built it in 1860. It has fully mechanical action, two 61-note keyboards, the first for the Grand Organ and the second for the Swell, and a straight 27-note pedalboard. Its Neo-Gothic case displays 26 principal pipes arranged as a single pointed group, with mitre-shaped mouths.
Neo-Gothic Pronaos
Felice Marandono’s Neo-Gothic pronaos was built in 1826. The porch forms part of the later completion of the cathedral, alongside the extension of the aisles, and gives the entrance group its nineteenth-century character.
Medieval Buildings
Romanesque Baptistery
The Romanesque baptistery of Saint John the Baptist is a small square building beside the cathedral. A semicircular apse projects from each side, while a central octagonal drum rises above the main body and is topped by a lantern with a square base. Romanesque architecture uses the massive masonry and rounded forms associated with medieval building.
The baptistery’s interior is now largely plain. Its walls were frescoed during the Middle Ages, and surviving fragments include an image of the Madonna and Child. These remains preserve part of the building’s earlier religious decoration.
Gothic Campanile and Medieval Complex
The surviving Gothic campanile stands within the block associated with the former church of Saint Stephen Vecchio. The cathedral, baptistery, campanile, seminary, and Provostry House together occupy the setting of the medieval religious complex connected with the chapter of Saint Stephen.
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