Shrine of Our Lady Help of Christians, Gothic parish church in Viatosto, Italy.

The Shrine of Our Lady Help of Christians is a parish church featuring characteristic Gothic elements like pointed arches and tall stone walls. The interior space follows classic proportions of this style, creating a structure that draws the eye upward.

First documented in 11th-century acts as Santa Maria de Riparupta, the church was rebuilt in the late 12th century, as 1996 excavations in the apse confirmed. Between 1340 and 1350 legacies funded its Gothic transformation: a pentagonal apse and cross vaults. In 1660 Pope Alexander VII erected a Confraternity of Maria Ausiliatrice here; restorations ran from 1994 to 2000.

The name Viatosto, as the historian Incisa suggested in 1806, may come from "via tosto": the plague that struck Asti in 1340 ceased here and then quickly freed the whole city. In 1660 Pope Alexander VII erected in the church a Confraternity under the invocation of Maria Ausiliatrice, the title still borne by the shrine.

The church stands on a hill about 2.5 km from the centre of Asti in Borgo Viatosto, under 5 km from the old city walls. It is oriented with the apse to the east and the entrance to the west; a flight of steps leads up to the Gothic portal. The 1932 bastion consolidates the hill, and the churchyard offers a view over the city.

The campanile dates to 1266, when Bishop Corrado di Cocconato obtained a contribution from Pope Clement IV to build it; its ground floor, rib-vaulted with a keystone, served as the sacristy. In the lunette above the Gothic portal, restored in 1932, a Madonna with Child is painted with wheat and grapes, symbols of rural life.