Cattedrale di San Lorenzo, Alba site features

The cathedral faces piazza Risorgimento with a high gabled facade, divided into three sections by square-plan pilasters that correspond to the three naves inside — so the front tells you the plan before you go in.

The lower part carries the pronaos, with pointed arches. Above, the two lateral sections have twin Gothic single-light windows, and the centre has the large circular rose window, opened in 1870 in place of the original single light.

Below the rose is a statue of San Lorenzo Martire of 1878, by the Milanese sculptor Luigi Cocchio. Around it, the four evangelist bas-reliefs of the same year by Carlo Dusio.

To the left of the apse stands the bell tower, 13th-century and modified in 1477. It carries four orders of windows — from the bottom, single lights, then two orders of two-light windows, then an order of four-light windows of which only the two central openings are actually open — and is capped by a brick spire on an octagonal plan.

Inside, three tall naves of four bays each, with a deep transept at the fourth bay. The naves are covered with cross vaults painted as a starry sky, of 1870.

The ALBA facade

Four bas-reliefs of 1878 by Carlo Dusio, showing the symbols of the four evangelists in the traditional order from the left — Angelo, Leone, Bue, Aquila. Their initials spell ALBA, and the source points it out rather than leaving it to be found.

What is left of the 11th-century church

Four things, and only four: the bell tower, the three portals, the portico of the facade and the crypt. Everything else was pulled down as unsafe when the rebuilding began in 1486.

The bell tower

13th-century, modified in 1477. Four orders of openings, rising from single lights to four-light windows — of which, oddly, only the two central ones are genuinely open. An octagonal brick spire on top.

The starry vaults

The cross vaults over the naves are painted as a night sky, from 1870 — part of the same campaign that opened the rose window.

The rose window of 1870

It is not original. It replaced the central single-light window during the 19th-century remodelling.

The resemblance to Chieri

Worth knowing if you have seen the other: the horizontal banding on walls and pillars, the lobed pillars and the blue cross vaults are shared with the contemporary Duomo di Chieri.

The new presbytery, 2007–2009

Built at the foot of the staircase that leads up to the old one, so the historic sanctuary is left intact above it.