After 41 years of restoration, the Chapel of the Martyrdom of St. Eusebius at Sacro Monte di Crea reopens

After 41 years of restoration, the Chapel of the Martyrdom of St. Eusebius at Sacro Monte di Crea, in the province of Alessandria, finally reopens to the public. The interventions took four decades because, according to Renata Lodari, president of theEnte Sacri Monti of Piedmont, the restoration was complex: "Beyond the damage caused by the centuries and that due to the abandonment that the entire Sacro Monte experienced after the Napoleonic suppressions, a very heavy set of adversities seems to have fallen on the Chapel of St. Eusebius. In fact, everything has happened to the chapel: even an act of vandalism, in 1977, when the marvelous statues made by Flemish artist Juan de Wespin known as “the Tabacchetti” were shattered, torn to pieces. The culprit was never discovered. The reopening of the Chapel must therefore be a moment of reflection, Lodari further declares. The affair, he stresses, “while specific, is in many ways emblematic of the problems involving the 4,500 statues and the many thousands of square meters of precious frescoes in the 164 Chapels present in our seven Sacred Mounts. And together it is the right occasion to thank those who supported us in the interventions that made possible the resurrection of this fundamental Crea chapel.”

The recovery is thus the result of a sequence of interventions, as explained by the director of the Ente Sacri Monti, Elena De Filippis: "After the act of vandalism in 1977, we began by securing the surviving fragments, then restoring the entrance door, actions that could not be deferred. In the early 1980s, external drainage, repairs to the windows were carried out, actions aimed at dealing with problems related to rising damp and consequent damage on the frescoes. Only in 2005 was it possible to partially dismantle and entrust what remained of the statues to Gian Luigi Nicola’s restoration laboratory. In 2007, the emptying of the floor, which seemed to be giving way and settling in several places, and the construction of an aerated slab to improve the healthiness of the chapel damaged by rising damp was carried out. Between 2008 and 2009, a major landslide affected the slope above the Chapel and absorbed a large part of the Park’s financial resources earmarked for the restoration of paintings and statues to redirect them to consolidating the slope upstream of the Chapel. In parallel, the restoration of the frescoes was started and completed in 2012. It was in 2014 that the statues were restored and relocated to the site. Chronicled in recent months is the re-roofing and restoration of the exterior plaster, door and window frames, stone parts and the door, an intervention also made possible by a 32,000-euro grant from the Fondazione della Cassa di Risparmio di Torino."

The last chapter, the reopening last Oct. 27, which thus took on the connotations of a... historic event.

After 41 years of restoration, the Chapel of the Martyrdom of St. Eusebius at Sacro Monte di Crea reopens

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