Description
The Gran Madre di Dio is the neoclassical church on the right bank of the Po, in the Borgo Po district, right opposite the Vittorio Emanuele I bridge and Piazza Vittorio Veneto. With the Cappuccini hill behind it, it forms one of the best-known views of central Turin.
Its facade is closely reminiscent of the Pantheon in Rome: a tall flight of steps, a portico with six Corinthian columns across the front and a pediment with the Virgin receiving the homage of Turin's city councillors.
The interior is circular and rests on the dome: five tiers of octagonal stucco coffers, shrinking in size, ending in an oculus of over three meters through which light falls from above.
At the foot of the steps sit the two statues of Faith and Religion, by Carlo Chelli, from 1828. The one with the chalice, Faith, is often mistaken for the Madonna, and for those who like the esoteric she is said to point to the place of the Holy Grail.
In the niches beneath the portico stand Saint Mark and Saint Charles Borromeo. The side altars are dedicated to Saint Mark and Saint Leonard, in memory of a church that stood a short distance away and that Napoleon had torn down in 1811 to make room for the bridge.
The church was commissioned by the city to celebrate the return of King Victor Emmanuel I of Savoy, on May 20, 1814, after Napoleon's retreat. It is still the only church in Turin owned by the city.
The design is by Ferdinando Bonsignore, chosen through a competition. The first stone was laid by Victor Emmanuel I on July 23, 1818, then the work stopped for about ten years and resumed in 1827. The church was inaugurated in 1831.
The inscription on the pediment, dedicated by the order and the people of Turin, celebrates the king's arrival, not his return from exile, and even to contemporaries this seemed a curious choice.
Beneath the church, in the crypt, is the shrine to the fallen of the First World War, inaugurated in 1932.
The body of King Charles Albert also received its last blessing here, on October 14, 1849, before being buried in the Basilica of Superga.
Its facade is closely reminiscent of the Pantheon in Rome: a tall flight of steps, a portico with six Corinthian columns across the front and a pediment with the Virgin receiving the homage of Turin's city councillors.
The interior is circular and rests on the dome: five tiers of octagonal stucco coffers, shrinking in size, ending in an oculus of over three meters through which light falls from above.
At the foot of the steps sit the two statues of Faith and Religion, by Carlo Chelli, from 1828. The one with the chalice, Faith, is often mistaken for the Madonna, and for those who like the esoteric she is said to point to the place of the Holy Grail.
In the niches beneath the portico stand Saint Mark and Saint Charles Borromeo. The side altars are dedicated to Saint Mark and Saint Leonard, in memory of a church that stood a short distance away and that Napoleon had torn down in 1811 to make room for the bridge.
The church was commissioned by the city to celebrate the return of King Victor Emmanuel I of Savoy, on May 20, 1814, after Napoleon's retreat. It is still the only church in Turin owned by the city.
The design is by Ferdinando Bonsignore, chosen through a competition. The first stone was laid by Victor Emmanuel I on July 23, 1818, then the work stopped for about ten years and resumed in 1827. The church was inaugurated in 1831.
The inscription on the pediment, dedicated by the order and the people of Turin, celebrates the king's arrival, not his return from exile, and even to contemporaries this seemed a curious choice.
Beneath the church, in the crypt, is the shrine to the fallen of the First World War, inaugurated in 1932.
The body of King Charles Albert also received its last blessing here, on October 14, 1849, before being buried in the Basilica of Superga.