Church of San Francesco Saverio in Mondovì

One of the most important Baroque jewels in the Cuneo area is the church known as ‘La Missione’ dedicated to St Francis Xavier, a sort of laboratory of artistic innovation by the Baroque artist Andrea Pozzo. The result was astonishing and made the painter so famous that he was commissioned to work on important building sites in and outside Italy. Andrea Pozzo succeeded in creating something unique in the Church of the Mission: thanks to masterful use of the laws of perspective, he created an optical illusion that transformed an octagonal barrel vault into a dizzying mock dome, multiplying and amplifying the real space inside the church.

Andrea Pozzo’s work in the Church of the Mission in Mondovì has today been enhanced by the Infinitum project, a multimedia itinerary that helps visitors grasp the play of perspective created by the frescoes on the vault and the other treasures inside the church. Through new technologies applied in a theatrical and didactic way to the history of art and thanks to a VR headset, visitors enjoy a unique experience immersed in the architecture and the stories of the people linked to this Baroque jewel. This multimedia show offers a combination of light effects and Baroque music and the protagonist and narrator of the story is an avatar of Pozzo himself, who speaks directly to visitors, accompanying them in their discovery of the building’s ingenious solutions.