The Church of the Addolorata (Italian:Chiesa dell’Addolorata) is a Romanesque-style,

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

basilica church located on Piazza Addolorata, in

Acqui Terme Acqui Terme (; pms, Àich ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Alessandria, Piedmont, northern Italy. It is about south-southwest of Alessandria. It is one of the principal winemaking communes of the Italian DOCG wine Brachetto d'A ...

Province of Alessandria The Province of Alessandria ( it, Provincia di Alessandria; pms, Provincia ëd Lissandria; in Piedmontese of Alessandria: ''Provinsa ëd Lissändria'') is an Italian province, with a population of some 425,000, which forms the southeastern part o ...

, region of

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, Italy.

History

The church is dedicated to the

Marian devotion Marian devotions are external pious practices directed to the person of Mary, mother of God, by members of certain Christian traditions. They are performed in Catholicism, High Church Lutheranism, Anglo-Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Orien ...

Our Lady of Sorrows Our Lady of Sorrows ( la, Beata Maria Virgo Perdolens), Our Lady of Dolours, the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows ( la, Mater Dolorosa, link=no), and Our Lady of Piety, Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or Our Lady of the Seven Dolours are names ...

, however, the church is also called ''San Pietro'', since it was once attached to what was once the adjacent

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monastery of San Pietro. The layout we see today was built in the 11th-century at the site of a late 6th-century

paleochristian The history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, Christian countries, and the Christians with their various denominations, from the 1st century to the present. Christianity originated with the ministry of Jesus, a Jewish teache ...

church located just outside the city walls. It had three naves with an octagonal bell-tower at the southern

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

. The simple brick facade has protruding

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s and shows a trend towards verticality. After 1720, with the closing of the monastery, part of the church was rededicated to the Addolorata. It underwent major restoration after the First World War, that stripped much of the decoration, giving the interior a white-washed simplicity. The apse and the base of the bell-tower retain medieval traces. The interior conserves a 15th-century ''Deposition'' fresco and two 16th-century canvases depicting ''Christ Crowned with Spines'' and ''Christ before Pilate''. The wooden statue of the Madonna Addolorata dates to 1720.Turismo Acqui Terme
, website.

References

Addolorata 11th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Romanesque architecture in Piedmont Addolorata {{Italy-RC-church-stub