17 May The Church of San Giovanni Battista in Loano

The cathedral of San Giovanni Battista is undoubtedly one of the symbolic buildings of Loano.

It was built between February 21, 1633 and March 28, 1638 by the princely family of the Dorias on the same site as a previous fifteenth-century temple. On 17 September 1662 it was consecrated as a Loanese place of worship.

The building has a decagonal plan with a 50 m segmented dome, anti-seismic, in place of the previous roof which collapsed during the 1887 earthquake. It follows a Renaissance style and at the top is the bronze statue of the patron saint San Giovanni Battista.

The bell tower, adjacent to the oratory of Our Lady of the Rosary, comes from the previous parish church which was abandoned and demolished at the beginning of the 17th century. The Gothic tower (of which the remains are visible) was subsequently enlarged with a belfry which houses six bells in Mi3.

Inside there are numerous paintings from the seventeenth century. In the first chapel on the right is the painting by Luciano Borzone depicting Santa Barbara (1642), the San Sebastiano by Orazio De Ferrari (1639) and the Crucifixion by Borzone. Behind the main altar is the Birth of the Baptist by Giovanni Andrea Ansaldo (1625), while in the chapel on the left there are the paintings of the Madonna, of Sant’Antonio Abate and of Paolo Eremita by Orazio De Ferrari, and the Beheading of San John the Baptist by Giovanni Domenico Cappellini.

The paintings Caduta di Saulo by Domenico Fiasella, known as the “Sarzana” ; Madonna, Saint Peter and Saint John the Evangelist by De Ferrari (1638); Kiss of Judas by an unknown painter (17th century); and St. Francis Xavier Baptizing the Indians by Giuseppe Badaracco are still present.

The church can be freely visited by the public every day from 7 to 18 with the exception of the hours in function of the Holy Mass.