Church of Gran Madre di Dio | |
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Chiesa della Gran Madre di Dio | |
Map of Turin | |
45°03′44″N7°41′57″E / 45.0622°N 7.6991°E | |
Country | Italy |
Denomination | Roman Catholic Church |
History | |
Dedication | Mary, Mother of Jesus |
Architecture | |
Groundbreaking | 1818 |
Completed | 1831 |
Administration | |
Archdiocese | Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Turin |
The church of the Gran Madre di Dio (Great Mother of God) is a Neoclassic-style church dedicated to Mary, Mother of God, on the western bank of the Po River, facing the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele I leading into Piazza Vittorio Veneto, Turin, region of Piedmont, Italy. [1]
The church was conceived in 1814, after the defeat of Napoleon, to celebrate the return to the throne of King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia from the Savoia family, after a 16 years long exile. The municipality immediately suggests to celebrate this return with the building of a monument. The necessity to plan out the spaces, which were recently employed by the fortification and the idea to build a votive temple, have to be seen as a unitary project. Actually, the church has to be the ending to the lengthy vista, which links the Castello Square to the hill. Together with the planning of this Church, a square for the latter also needs to be implanted in the project, which would be a sort of lengthening of the already existing Vittorio Square on the other side of the river. [2] The architect was Ferdinando Bonsignore, whose project was chosen following a competition. Construction began in 1818, only to pause for nearly a decade, and restart in 1827, under the rule of Charles Felix of Sardinia. The church was inaugurated in 1831 under Charles Albert of Sardinia. [3]
Others who contributed to the construction were Giuseppe Formento and the engineer Virginio Bordino. The latter helped raise the columns on the façade. The architect Luigi Canina was consulted during construction. Flanking the entrance staircase, atop two high plinths, are two statues representing Faith (with calyx) and Religion by Carlo Chelli. The tympanum of the church states: ORDO POPVLVSQVE TAVRINVS OB ADVENTVM REGIS, which can be translated as: The Nobility and the People of Turin for the Return of the King. The church architecture was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. The link between the political event with the religious one comes through thanks to the classical metaphors to talk about the religious episodes with a back and forth between religious and political personalities. [4] In front of the church is a statue of a King Vittorio Emanuele I, walking forward, holding a staff in his right arm, the base reads Vittorio Emanuele I/ Re di Sardegna/ Restituito a su Pepolo/il XX Maggio MDCCCXIV/ Ne Coronara/ la Fedeltà secolare.
Victor Emmanuel II was King of Sardinia from 23 March 1849 until 17 March 1861, when he assumed the title of King of Italy and became the first king of an independent, united Italy since the 6th century, a title he held until his death in 1878. Borrowing from the old Latin title Pater Patriae of the Roman emperors, the Italians gave him the epithet of Father of the Fatherland.
The House of Savoy is a royal dynasty that was established in 1003 in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, the family grew in power from ruling a small Alpine county north-west of Italy to absolute rule of the Kingdom of Sicily from 1713 to 1720, when they were handed the island of Sardinia, over which they would exercise direct rule from then onward.
The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is Italy's oldest active shopping gallery and a major landmark of Milan. Housed within a four-story double arcade in the centre of town, the Galleria is named after Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of the Kingdom of Italy. It was designed in 1861 and built by architect Giuseppe Mengoni between 1865 and 1877.
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Piazza della Repubblica is a city square in Florence, Italy. It was originally the site of the city's forum; then of its old ghetto, which was swept away during the improvement works, or Risanamento, initiated during the brief period when Florence was the capital of a reunited Italy—work that also created the city's avenues and boulevards. At that time, the Loggia del Pesce from the Mercato Vecchio was also moved to Piazza Ciompi. The square's Giubbe Rosse cafe has long been a meeting place for famous artists and writers, notably those of Futurism.
The Chapel of the Holy Shroud is a Baroque-style Roman Catholic chapel in Turin in northern Italy, constructed to house the Shroud of Turin, a religious relic believed to be the burial shroud of Jesus of Nazareth. It is located adjacent the Turin Cathedral and connected to the Royal Palace of Turin. The chapel was designed by architect-priest and mathematician Guarino Guarini and built at the end of the 17th century (1668–1694), during the reign of Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy, and is considered one of the masterpieces of Baroque architecture. Heavily damaged in a fire in 1997, it underwent a complex 21 year restoration project, and reopened in 2018. The chapel has an intricate and self-supporting wooden and marble dome.
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Turin is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is mainly on the western bank of the Po River, below its Susa Valley, and is surrounded by the western Alpine arch and Superga hill. The population of the city proper is 847,287, while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 1.7 million inhabitants. The Turin metropolitan area is estimated by the OECD to have a population of 2.2 million.
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Ferdinando Bonsignore was an Italian architect and designer.
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Giuseppe Pietro Bagetti was an Italian civil and military architect, as well as painter. He painted landscapes and battle paintings.
Piazza Vittorio Veneto, also known as Piazza Vittorio, is a city square in Turin, Italy, which takes its name from the Battle of Vittorio Veneto in 1918.
The Equestrian monument to Vittorio Emanuele II is an equestrian statue of the former King Vittorio Emanuele II, located in the Piazza Vittorio Veneto, a small green spot at the east end of the Parco delle Cascine, located along the Arno River, just west of central Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy.
The monument to Vittorio Emanuele II is located in Turin, in the Largo of the same name, at the junction between Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and Corso Galileo Ferraris.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Turin: