This church has been deconsecrated, but it still plays an important role in Ivrea. It remains a hub of cultural and political life: a public space where something happens every day – debates, conferences, exhibitions, book launches, and so on. The people of Ivrea visit it so regularly that it has become a habit: they are often unaware that the building dates back to the Baroque period, but it has much older origins.
The first building was constructed in the second half of the 15th century and underwent extensive renovation at the end of the 16th century at the behest of the Confraternity of Saint Martha, a religious society founded in 1460. In the second half of the 17th century, subsequent alterations gave the church its current appearance in the Piedmontese Baroque style, with a graceful façade and the adjacent oratory topped by a cross-vault. Both the church and the oratory were widely decorated, but almost nothing of these works has been preserved.
What remains of the original building? Some parts of the altar, traces of the ancient frescoes in the chancel and in some lunettes on the side walls of the oratory. After the Second World War, the church was deconsecrated and then purchased by the Municipality of Ivrea in the 1970s. Since then, it has been a focal point for the many cultural activities organised in the city.
