The country chapel of Beato Amedeo, located in the town of Villafranca d'Asti in the Fransos region (olim Montortorello), was built in 1704 by the canonical St. Helena, don Gaspare Veglio.
It was visited for the first time in 1729 by Bishop of Asti Mons. Todone and was in good order; it also owned a bell bought by the founder, and the bishop merely ordered the windows to be provided with gratings.
In 1749 bishop Felizzano judged it in good condition and ordered to furnish the altar of a wooden table and a decent corporal.
Things got worse in the next century because in the visit of 1840 the church was found to be in need of unspecified "gravibus reparationibus", while the injunction to provide the windows with frames was repeated and the chalices and paten were ordered to be gilded.
Was only at the end of the century, however, the chapel was repaired by the owner, Giacomo Veglio, and in 1892 it was revered by the parish priest of Villafranca Fr. Bussetti.
Currently, the chapel is in very precarious conditions, since for several years the annual Mass has not been celebrated on the day of the Blessed Amedeo as it happened in the past: the roof is in bad condition and the interior furnishings have been completely destroyed in the long period in which the church remained open (it has recently been closed again).
Of particular interest is the canvas that overhangs what remains of the altar, representing tBlessed Amedeo distributing alms to the poor on the background of the image of the Shroud.
There is no shortage of disagreements among the descendants the founder's descendants since maintenance was carried out by Mario Veglio's family while the enjoyment of the land currently belongs to another branch that is not interested in the chapel.
A protective intervention is considered necessary because the chapel risks an irreviable decline and the same demolition, lacking the common agreement for its repair.
Despite being a small rural building with no particular artistic value, it still remains the testimony of a particular moment in the history of the locality and of the spread of religious piety in the Asti countryside of the early eighteenth century.
For more information: https://www.beweb.chiesacattolica.it/
See also...
• Events in Villafranca d'Asti
• Villafranca d'Asti tourist guide
