Assistance to the poor, the ill and to orphans was left to the Christian charity of private citizens and to the hospital orders. In some towns the poor were received in small hospitals, which later joined to become the Ospedale Maggiore (the general hospital). The “House of Alms” also took in the poor. Along the via Francigena, hospitals provided a meal and a bed to pilgrims. The fraternities, forerunners of the confraternities of the 1600’s, carried out acts of solidarity towards their fellow followers and distributed food and clothing.
The Chieri nobility, the confraternities and the clerics were the main customers for the furnishings and sculptures (crucifixes, reliquaries and ostensories). Particular attention was reserved for the vestments (precious fabrics from local sources were used but also Sicilian, Genovese and French fabrics).