At the end of via Po, on the other side of the river, stands a Pantheon. The church of the Gran Madre di Dio was designed by the court architect Ferdinando Bonsignore in open imitation of the Roman model — the portico with columns, the pediment, the dome — and the first stone was laid in 1818 by Vittorio Emanuele I. It was meant to give thanks for the return of the House of Savoy to the throne after the Napoleonic interlude: a political monument dressed as a temple.
What to see
The stairway is as wide as the front and on it sit two statues: Faith, holding a chalice and looking into the distance, and Religion. Turin has built around that statue one of its best-known legends: that the chalice marks the spot where the Grail is hidden, and that the gaze of Faith gives the direction. Nothing supports it, but the story has been going round for a century and a half and is part of the tours of the esoteric city.
Inside, the circular hall under the dome is severe and rather cold, as neoclassicism requires; below is the crypt, which since the twentieth century has been the memorial to Turin's war dead. But the real reason to come is outside: from the forecourt you look back, along the bridge, and see the perspective of piazza Vittorio, via Po and at the end the Mole, all in line.
Visiting
The church is in piazza Gran Madre, on the right bank of the Po, five minutes on foot from piazza Vittorio Veneto across the bridge; free entry, closed at midday and during services. Twenty minutes. Above it, ten minutes uphill, is the Monte dei Cappuccini with its belvedere.
Our editors' tip
Cross the bridge on foot at sunset, walking towards the church, then turn round on the stairway: the sun goes down behind the city, the river catches fire and the perspective of via Po closes on the Mole. It is the view the Turinese show first, and you get it standing in front of a church built for political reasons.