Sebastiano Guala was an Italian church architect active between 1640 and 1680 in the area of Casale Monferrato, then capital of the Gonzaga-ruled state of Montferrat. He was born into a prominent family of Frassinello Monferrato and became a canon of the Collegiata di Santa Maria di Piazza in Casale.[1] It has been thought probable[2] that he belonged to the same family as the Casalese painterPier Francesco Guala (1698–1757).
Santa Maria sulle Mura (also Madonna di Pompei and La Madonnina) in Viale Morozzo, with a secondary entrance from Via Saletta, was built in 1675 to contain a fresco of the Madonna upon which ‘miraculous’ tears had been observed. The image, which also depicts the infant Jesus and Saint Evasio, was painted in 1615 by Selvino Bolognesi.[8]
At Pozzo Sant’Evasio
The small church of Pozzo Sant’Evasio, near Casale, was built in 1666/1670 on the site of the miraculous fountain of Saint Evasio to commemorate a 1640 victory over the Spanish forces which were besieging Casale. The patron was Giovanni Domenico Polatto, president of the senate at Casale.[9]
Notes and references
^See Cravino (2004). (Santa Maria di Piazza, demolished in the nineteenth century, stood in what is now the eastern part of Piazza Mazzini.)
^The kinship is suggested in Liceo Scientifico Palli (n.d.), pointing to the rarity of Guala as a family name in the baptismal records in Casale.