Essential, with Franciscan rigor, the Sacro Monte di Belmonte located in Valperga, dominates the high Canavese plain between Serra d’Ivrea and the hills of Turin. A monastery that dates back to the first years of 1000, then a sanctuary and then a convent once again, it became Sacro Monte beginnting in 1712. Belmonte – made-up of 13 chapels each dedicated to a leg of the Via Crucis – still constitutes an important moment in authentic popular religious belief today. Just as Varallo, also Belmonte was conceived following the wish of a Franciscan monk, Michelangelo da Montiglio, who, after a stay in Palestine, called in local artists and artisans to work on creating a sanctuary, who as a demonstrable sign of their faith, worked for free. Simple, expressive groups, made in plaster or “scagliola” (artificial marble), whose faces and expressions allow a vein of popular taste to shine through, demonstrate this. More refined are the frescos, among which, those dedicated to Jesus nailed on the cross made with a light and delicate touch by an unknown artist catch one’s attention.
