Saint Mary, Saints John and Augustine and Christ King Cathedral

Owing to the changes taking place in the post-war period the church of Our Lady of Assumption, facing onto piazza Beverini, is now largely reconstructed and quite different from the surrounding historical city layout. The first document dated 1343 mentioning Santa Maria is an important deed in the history of La Spezia, and the church appears to be the institutional centre of community affairs from that time onwards. Owing to this centralized position and in spite of the violations inflicted, the church still preserves an interesting artistic heritage, in part pertaining to the parish and in part coming from the various religious institutes, either suppressed or destroyed.
This is the case of the glazed terracotta portraying Coronation of the Virgin by Andrea della Robbia, the great clearly counter-reformation painting portraying the Multiplication of bread by Giovanni Battista Casoni now hanging in the counter-facade, dated 1642, and Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew by Luca Cambiaso, near to the christening font, all works coming from the church and convent of St. Francis, abandoned and remaining within the boundaries of the Naval Arsenal. The marble tomb of Baldassare Biassa, captain in the Republic fleet from 1475 to 1503 and elected commander by pope Julian II, and his wife Francesca Malaspina is worthy of note. The Sacred Heart Chapel to the right of the apse, frescoed in the 30’s by Luigi Agretti and where the Christ the Redeemer created by Angiolo Del Santo in 1936 is still preserved, is also worthy of note.
The beautiful Crucifixion, dating back to the XV century located in the chapel with the same name and produced with the strong and expressive intensity ascribable to the Ligurian school, instead comes from the lost church of St. Anthony, sacrificed to the need for roads during the 30’s and which stood where the Banca d’Italia now stands.

The church of Saints John and Augustine, founded during the course of the XVI century as a Mortis et Orationis oratory to look after the deceased, stands behind campo degli Agostiniani in a secluded position. With its single nave, richly decorated during the 18th century and still more so in the 19th century, the church is now composite but harmonized, with severe external prospects and exuberantly baroque decorations in the nave and in the apse.
The cathedral named after Christ King of Centuries is completely modern and dominates piazza Europa, on the side of the sea, from above a small rise where the Capuchin convent once stood. The hill housing this first religious building actually sloped right down to the sea, reaching the area where the port harbour master’s office now stands. After demolishing the hill in the 20’s to join up the Old Town with the eastern districts, the adjoining zone, piazza Europa, became the ideal site to build the cathedral on, La Spezia having become a diocese in 1929. The relevant competition called was won by Brenno Del Giudice, but the project was abandoned until 1956 when it was taken up again and completely altered by Adalberto Libera, who had immediately sensed the potential of the new church’s position, already with a large public square in front of it, and further enhanced this religious centre by placing the vast church square at the back of the building: with the cathedral acting as a great link, ideally and physically joining up these two areas.
Libera’s original project was in part revised by Cesare Galeazzi while the cathedral was being built and which was only consecrated in 1975 after lengthy works.