The first parish of the village was S.Ilario which, as it happened until the fifteenth century, stood isolated in the countryside far from the inhabited center.
It consists of a semicircular stone apse in which two rectangular single-lancet windows open and a single rectangular nave, also in stone, covered by two brick cross vaults, illuminated by two large windows and a small opening onto the facade.
Only the apse part dates back to the 15th century, while the vaults, bell tower and facade are from the 18th century. Around the church - which after being for years in a state of complete abandonment is now partly restored thanks to the efforts of a family that owns the neighboring house - there was a small cemetery. Inside, the entire apse has almost illegible traces of late 15th century frescoes and some fragments can be glimpsed on the walls. In the under-arch and around the two single-lancet windows of the apse there are significant rough racemic decorations, interspersed only in the under-arch by roundels with human figures; there are still remains of the velarium.
At the center of the apse stands the figure of S. lIario in the chair; on his right an unrecognizable warrior saint, perhaps S. Martino, then S. Guido (with the name Uido written at the top, it is perhaps the oldest representation of the saint present in the Diocese), S. Bernardino da Siena, a tondo with a face, S. Tommaso with the belt symbol.
To the left of S. Ilario we have a now ruined niche which perhaps contained a Holy Virgin with Child, then S. Pietro, S. Giacomo, S. Paolo. The symbols of the Evangelists surrounding a Crito Pantocrator are effective in the basin.
It is a work of naive workmanship, very archaic compared to the presumed age of composition: the Saints are rigidly arranged in colored squares, without accuracy in the rendering of clothes, backgrounds, or details (for example the Cathedral of Acqui held by S. Guido is little more than a stylization of a church).
As for the dating, the presence of S. Bernardino indicates that the work was carried out after the middle of the 15th century. A further chronological clarification may come from the fact that the S. Guido seems to strongly depend on the one sculpted by Pilacorte on the portal of the Cathedral of Acqui, in 1481.
According to what can be read today of his work, the painter shows himself to be a modest fresco painter, sensitive to the influences of local painting.
Vedi anche...
• Guida turistica di Cassinasco
• Municipium, l'App del tuo Comune
