The Church of San Filippo stands on the site of a chapel built in 1635 by the municipal administration of Fossano in honour of the Ancina brothers, both followers of the Filippini movement of Rome to whom the inhabitants of the town were very devoted.
Not even a hundred years passed before it was immediately necessary to start work on enlarging the building to accommodate the growing number of worshippers. The work lasted from 1706 to 1713, but we do not know who designed the project: all that remains of the previous convent is the portico on the left-hand side, while the slender body of the new complex dominates the whole of the surrounding Borgo Vecchio district, characterised by low, medieval dwellings.
The external façade in terracotta is enlivened by pairs of columns supporting a high tympanum and decorated with a fresco dating back to 1739 above the main portal. The interior of the church, on the other hand, has a single central nave with particular side chapels linked together.
The interior decoration of the church, mainly sculptural, is a triumph of Baroque style: stuccoes, polychrome wooden sculptures, gilded inlays, follow one another without interruption to give further emphasis to the cycle of frescoes covering all the walls, painted by the brothers Giovanni Pietro and Pietro Antonio Pozzo in collaboration with Antonio Michele Milocco between 1718 and 1739, the same authors who almost at the same time also worked at the Confraternita dei Battuti Rossi.
Of particular artistic interest is the false architecture on the back wall, which deceives the eye of the observer and further amplifies the space of the church. Under the high altar we can still find the cemetery crypt for the burials of the Filippini family, unfortunately not accessible at the moment.
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