In what was once a vibrant French-Canadian neighborhood in Woonsocket, a cavernous church houses the largest collection of frescoes in North America, all done by a single Italian artist who saw an opportunity to create his own Sistine Chapel, more than 4,000 miles away.
Guido Nincheri’s sprawling masterpiece is now in the hands of a nonprofit volunteer organization devoted to keeping the former church. How the frescoes came to be is a story of Rhode Island’s industrial past, the rise and fall of its French-Canadian community, and a mirror to Woonsocket’s own history as a center in the state.
