Church of Luigi Cambray Digny

In 1824, during the reign of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Leopold II, grandson of the more famous Pietro Leopoldo, it was decided to erect, on state-owned land, a church to satisfy the devotional needs of those who used the spa treatments.

The project was entrusted to Luigi de Cambray Digny (Florence 1778 - 1843) who, a student of Gaspare Maria Paoletti (Florence, 1727 - 1813), in 1815 had been appointed secretary of the management of the Royal Factory writing desk with the role of architect.

The church was built at the end of the "Stradone dei Bagni" (now Viale Verdi) perpendicular to the Tettuccio establishment, on a clearing that would be called Piazza Umberto I and later Piazza del Popolo.

In neoclassical style, the new state church, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta, was inaugurated in 1833.

The façade featured Ionic-style travertine columns well sculpted by some anonymous stonemason, and, on the pediment, a semicircular window and a clock.

Inside there were three altars with frescoes of Saint Peter and Saint Barbara, patron saint of Montecatini, and behind the main altar a majestic image of the Madonna with baby Jesus attributed to Fra’ Bartolomeo from Prato, a Dominican friar who lived from 1473 to 1517, which was originally located in the small church of the Benedictine Cassinesi, then incorporated into the building of the Locanda Maggiore).

With the passing of the years and the growth of the tourist appeal of the spa town, the church of Luigi de Cambray Digny proved too small to accommodate the ever-increasing number of “bathers”. Thus it was decided to build a new church, the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, also on Piazza del Popolo, which was inaugurated in 1962.

The old church was demolished. Only the pronaos of the façade was preserved, which, dismantled piece by piece, is preserved in the garden of Villa Forini-Lippi, home to the Municipal Library.

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