The Basilica of Sant'Andrea is a Roman Catholic church in Vercelli in Piedmont, Italy. The former monastery church of the Archdiocese of Turin bears the title of a minor basilica. The basilica is the most important work of the transitional Romanesque-Gothic style in northern Italy, in which the local Romanesque and the innovations of the Cistercian Gothic coexist. Begun in 1219 by Cardinal Guala Bicchieri, it was completed in 1227. The detached campanile dates from the 15th century.
The basilica was built between 1219 and 1227 on the initiative of Cardinal Guala Bicchieri. The cornerstone was laid on February 19, 1219 in the presence of Bishop Ugone. The cardinal had recently returned from England where, in his capacity as papal legate, he expressed the appreciation and gratitude of King Henry III. acquired, so that as a reward he received the perpetual annuities of Saint Andrew's Abbey at Chesterton, Cambridge. Due to the financial resources available, the cardinal summoned some canons of the Congregation of St Victor from Paris to Vercelli and gave them responsibility for the abbey to be built and the pilgrims' hospital, the construction of which began in 1224. It was probably these canons, and in particular the abbot Thomas Gallus - already a professor at the University of Paris - who brought to Vercelli the innovations in Gothic architecture that had emerged in the Île-de-France.
Through his diplomatic skill, the cardinal succeeded in the following years, the possessions of the abbey through gifts and privileges from Pope Honorius III. and to protect and increase Emperor Frederick II (the protection diploma issued in 1226 comes from him). Cardinal Bicchieri died in Rome in 1227, the year the basilica was completed.
Source: Wikipedia