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The Cathedral
and the Chapel
In 1667, Father Guarino Guarini, architect of the Court and great exponent of
Piedmontese Baroque, was charged by Carlo Emanuele II of Savoia of the project and
realisation of the chapel apted to keep the Holy Shroud.
Emanuele Filiberto moved the Relic to Turin in 1578, when he elected Turin to be the
capital of his reign, but the works to place permanently the Linen protracted till 1694.
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The Savoias, keepers of the Shroud, venerated it deeply and the chapel became the symbolic
point of union between the temporal and the spiritual power: it was placed between the top
of the nave of the Cathedral and the apartements of the King.
Guarini worked on the previous project of Bernardino Quadri and he based his idea
considering the Shroud as the last proof of Christ sufferings for mankind, and he
developped an ascetic way of redemption and elevation towards the heavenly glory.
People could reach the chapel by two parallel large staircases which started from the end
of the two aisles of the cathedral.
The bright black marble stood out on the light paint of the cathedral.
The flights wound upwards, disclosing their sight little by little, with the sensation of
a winding elevation. The flights ended in two small circular rooms. From there, you could
see the central room, a perfect circle steeped in a sumptuous obscurity: the floors were
decorated with a composition of bronze stars remembering all the construction and
lightening it.
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On the walls, where some sober Corinthian pilasters softened the voluptuous effect of
the marble, there were three large arches, one of which appeared to the nave of the
cathedral.
The man who used to kneel to pray at the foot of the composition which was framing the
Holy Shroud could raise his eyes up and, at dusk, look at all around him from the bottom
to the top of the structure overhung by the dove of the Holy Spirit. A light and shapes
dancing projecting on the dome arose from it.
The marble variation in colour the volumes were clothed in accentuated the sensation of
fling towards the upper part of the dome: from the bright black of the bottom to the dull
grey of the open-work dome, which was lightened by the thin ribs of the rings of little
arches laying one on the other.
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The dome was sparkling with a vibrating light and it was decked with a group of
symbols which reminded the divine perfection.
All the structure had been thought on the ground of the multiples of number three (mirror
of the Trinity) and on the perfect figures (circle, triangle and star): that was a clear
call to the cosmos which moves towards the sun light, the Triumphant Christ who leads man
to salvation. The architectonical way was a process of spiritual elevation. |
Further details on the fire
The Cathedral
and the Chapel
The Archbishop's press note
Exposition route - Fire in the Cathedral - Home
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