Dalla città al convento: le fondazioni mendicanti del Duecento nelle province del Nord Ovest. Le prime fasi delle chiese di San Francesco di Cuneo e di San Giovanni di Saluzzo tra la fine del XIII e l’inizio del XIV secolo

Abstract

The architecture of the first convents of the mendicant orders, Minors and Preachers, is a topic widely debated in historiography,
starting with the founding studies by Corrado Bozzoni on Franciscan architecture in central Italy.
While some areas are better known today for the important studies carried out on architecture in the last decades of the 20th
century, the Piedmontese territory, in the face of in-depth knowledge focused on the religious history of the orders and early
settlements, suffers from the material absence of much of the early architecture. The buildings that are still preserved today,
mainly Dominican, are the result of monumental construction works that matured between the end of the 13th and the beginning
of the 14th century, or in some instances, the mid-14th century.
The first part of the contribution presents a synopsis of the convents situated within the broad subalpine region between the
mid- and late 13th century. These settlements extend as far as the Lombard plain and approach the Ligurian Apennines, following
the original religious administrative subdivision. The two case studies presented in detail are followed by a reconstruction
of the earliest evidence of the churches of San Francesco in Cuneo, where recent excavations have brought to light some parts
of the primitive architectural layout. In San Giovanni di Saluzzo, some unpublished architectural parts, which have re-emerged
during the restoration work in progress, have made it possible to put forward hypotheses to revise what has been proposed so
far on the early construction phases of the church.

Keywords :  Mendicant convents, early Franciscan architecture, Dominican architecture, 13th and 14th century.