Mondovì Cathedral

Mondovì Cathedral (Italian: Cattedrale di Mondovi; Cattedrale di San Donato) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Mondovì, Province of Cuneo, Piedmont, northern Italy, dedicated to Saint Donatus of Arezzo.

The first was the pieve of San Donato (12th century), which was replaced at the beginning of the 16th century by a new Renaissance church, which was demolished by order of Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, in 1574.

The church of San Francesco was then declared the cathedral, to be replaced in its turn by the present one, which was built between 1743 and 1753 to designs by the architect Francesco Gallo, and consecrated ten years later by Bishop Michele Casati.

Among them are the altar of the Renaissance church (1507), now kept in the chapter room; an ancient bust of Pope Pius V donated by Pope Pius XI in 1872; and various paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries by Piedmontese and Lombard artists.

The presbytery and the main altar are decorated with large frescoes: in the apse is the Martyrdom of San Donato by Paolo Emilio Morgari; in the cupola the Glorification of Saint Pius V; in the presbytery the Coronation of the Virgin.