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Information about Ronsecco in the Province of Vercelli

The place name Ronsecco seems to be connected with the expression Rivo sicco (dry land) which can be found in a 707 decree, with which Ariperto II, longobardic king, annexed the Abbey of Saint Genuario and its territories until the border of Ronsecco to the estate of the Bishop of Vercelli, Emiliano. Amongst the worship places which can be visited in Ronsecco, it is worth seeing the Parish of Saint Lawrence Merthyr. This was built to its existing shape around the year 1350, whilst its choir dates back to 1775.

The building was totally restructured during the nineteenth century, and its interior was decorated by the painter Grosse. At the two ends of the village there are two oratories Saint Sebastian and Saint Roch.

In the hamlet of Lachelle there is instead the chapel of Saint Ignatius. On the road which leads from Ronsecco to Lachelle there is the Sanctuary of the Virgin of the “Viri Veri”, which dates back to the XIV century. Its name originates from a translation into the vernacular of the expression Villa vetus (Old Town), which was used to define the ancient town of Ronsecco.

On the external perimeter of the church there are arcades which were probably added during the eighteenth century, whilst the façade pediment is decorated with a fresco painted by Saletta di Casale in 1766.

Every year in this sanctuary a religious tradition which originated in 1867 is perpetuated. In this year a terrible epidemic of cholera attacked the population. The priest and the inhabitants of Ronsecco went to the sanctuary, took the statue of the Virgin of “Viri Veri” and made a procession to the parish. From that moment the illness started to regress. Two years later, to thank the Virgin who had protected the population, the chapel was restructured and in 1871 a new marble altar was built.

Still nowadays on the 15th of august, the day of the Assumption, the believers bring the simulacra of the Virgin from the Sanctuary to the existing parish of Saint Lawrence, and worship it for the whole following week, at the end of which the statue is brought back to the sanctuary during a night torchlight walk.

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