A Renaissance Cathedral in a Baroque City

The cathedral was commissioned by Cardinal Domenico della Rovere and built in white marble to a Tuscan Renaissance design attributed to Meo del Caprino, replacing three older churches dedicated to the Saviour, Saint Mary and Saint John the Baptist that had stood on the site. Completed in 1498, it kept the free-standing bell tower of 1470, later heightened by Filippo Juvarra.

For centuries it was the ceremonial church of the Dukes and later Kings of Savoy, whose capital Turin became, and its fortunes were bound to the dynasty that owned the Shroud. The building is comparatively plain inside, its fame resting almost entirely on the relic and on Guarini's chapel behind the altar. As the metropolitan seat of the Archbishop of Turin it remains an active parish and cathedral, drawing steady visitors and, at the rare ostensions of the Shroud, very large crowds of pilgrims from around the world.