Basilica Shrine of Our Lady of Mondovi, Minor basilica in Vicoforte, Italy.
The Sanctuary of Vicoforte is a monumental church in Vicoforte, Piedmont, built of pale stone and brick and crowned by a green copper dome on a high octagonal drum with arched windows and a lantern cross. Its elliptical dome, 74 metres high with axes of 37.15 and 24.80 metres, is the largest of its kind in the world. Inside, pale grey and cream walls and dome are divided by pilasters and arches, with a dark red marble altar and a floor of patterned stone.
Duke Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy commissioned architect Ascanio Vittozzi in 1596 to build the place of worship, which was meant to serve as a future mausoleum for the dynasty. The works lasted over two centuries, and the church eventually became a major burial site for several members of the House of Savoy.
The sanctuary takes its name from the Madonna del Pilone, a fifteenth-century fresco of the Madonna and Child painted on a modest shrine, probably by a brickmaker. According to legend, a huntsman accidentally struck the image around 1590 and it began to bleed; his arquebus is kept in a chapel near the fresco. The frescoes covering the dome vault, painted by Mattia Bortoloni and Felice Biella, show the theme of Salvation.
The sanctuary stands in the Berbonesca valley just outside Vicoforte, with the main entrance on the facade beneath the clock. The four bell towers frame the building, and the three facades date from 1884. Inside, the elliptical hall is arranged around the central altar of dark red marble columns, with wooden benches facing it.
The dome was built at a time when elliptical shapes in church construction were still rare, and engineers developed new techniques back then to secure the stability of the unusual vault. In 2017, the remains of Elena of Montenegro, the second Queen of Italy, were transferred here from Montpellier and laid to rest in the crypt.
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