The Baceno Parish Church, in Romanesque-Gothic style, is dedicated to Saint Gaudenzio, first Bishop of Novara (337-417). The oldest documents that testify to the existence of a chapel in the place where the church now stands date back to the early eleventh century. Carlo Bascapè, Bishop of Novara from 1593 to 1615, in his “Novaria Sacra” cites a document attesting the existence in Baceno of a chapel donated to the canons of Santa Maria di Novara by Gualberto di Pombia, Bishop of Novara from 1032 to 1039.
The chapel, built in a rectangular plan in Lombard Romanesque style, was located where the presbytery is currently located. The first enlargement of the building, dating from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, changed its orientation and gave shape to the portion today represented by the central nave and the Romanesque facade between the two pilasters. In 1326 the cleric Signebaldo de Baceno erected the Chapel of the Madonna at the point where the access to the primitive chapel stood.
The marked spread of Christianity in the Antigorio Valley later determined the need for a new expansion. On the occasion of the marriage, in 1486, of Bernardino de Baceno, Valvassore imperiale di Antigorio e Formazza, to the noblewoman Ludovica Trivulzio, daughter of the representative of the Duke of Milan in Ossola, the Church of San Gaudenzio was embellished with the construction of the current aisles, in Gothic style.
In the last decade of the 1500s, with the new norms established by the Council of Trent, new interventions began inside the Church of San Gaudenzio, whose structure was significantly modified with the inclusion of clear baroque elements, that since then dialogue in harmony with Romanesque and Gothic.
In the middle of the Romanesque stone façade of the monumental Church of San Gaudenzio stands the portal, dominated by a rose window and flanked by the large fresco of San Cristoforo, painted in 1542. The imposing bell tower, with a square base and a side of seven meters, is 31 meters high; the octagonal cusp was added in the seventeenth century.
The large interior with five naves, divided by four series of columns, is characterized by a floor with a steep slope (almost a meter the difference in height from the beginning of the nave to the base of the steps of the presbytery), composed of slabs from the local stone “serizzo”.
The side naves are made up of ten beautifully frescoed cruises; in addition to the imposing ciborium of the high altar, the Church of San Gaudenzio is enriched by seven side altars and the sixteenth-century Baptistery in white marble and wood, with frescoed walls and vaults.
The oldest and most valuable artistic portion of the building is represented by the Chapel of the Madonna (now of the Rosary), located in the nave to the right of the altar, whose wonderful frescoes are dedicated to the life of Mary.
In the presbytery, on the right, the great Crucifixion (1542), by Antonio Zanetti known as Bugnate, below the figures of Adam and Eve, while on the barrel vault is the dragon with the seven heads of the Apocalypse; the cruise of the presbytery is enclosed by three arches finely frescoed with prophets and sibille.
The magnificence of the Church of San Gaudenzio in Bacenohas an architecture that, at sunset, is enhanced by a clever night lighting.To make the visit experience even more engaging, the interactive online video game “Discover Baceno” is available for free..
