Travel Diary: Turin's churches

Hi lovelies! First travel post dedicated to my travel to Turin, I was able to visit so many beautiful places and eat tons of delicious food ahah for this reason I decided to create different thematic posts so you can easily go through them looking for specific informations. This first post is all about churches, you know I love churches so much and I found some gorgeous ones in Turin. The best thing? They're all free! This is such a rare thing 'cause I always pay to visit them when I travel in Europe.

Chiesa di San Filippo Neri

« AEDES SACRA

ARCHITECTO PRINCIPE PHILIPPO JUVARA

A CONGREGATIONE ORATORII TAURINENSIS

DEO OPTIMO MAXIMO

SANCTIS EUSEBIO - PHILIPPO NERIO

DICATA »

This is how it looks outside, really beautiful without looking like the classic church. The style is a mix between baroque and neo classic. It was commissioned by the Confederation of the Oratory of San Filippo Neri, at the behest of the Duke Carlo Emanuele II, in 1675 to the architect Antonio Bettino. This is the main setting of the story of the novel A che punto è la notte of Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini.

It was really hard take pictures inside 'cause it was really dark, I hope you can still apprecciate how beautiful and majestic this church is, a treasure nearby the storic centre you need to visit! From the church you can easily go visit the Egyptian Museum 'cause is in the nearby road.

Chiesa di San Lorenzo

The second church is dedicated to San Lorenzo and it's really easy to find, almost in the famous Piazza Castello. It's also really close to the Royal palace in Turin so you can easily go to it after visiting this beautiful church. 

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 

On the 10th August 1557, duke Emanuele Filiberto beat the French Army at S.Quintino, allowing Spanish hegemony in Europe, also thanks to the following Peace of Chateau Cambresis (1559) after he returned to the Duchy of Savoy which he soon started to radically change. As it was S.Lorence Feastday both Felipe II of Spain and Emanuele Filiberto promised that they would build a place of worship in honor of the saint himself. Felipe II soon after built the Monastry of S.Lorence dell’Escorial, a few kilometres from Madrid, where he then spent the last years of his own life. But at the time Duke Emanuele Filiberto, was busy building the Citadel and the State itself, and he hadn’t got sufficient money for a new Church, thus he dedicaded to the saint the already existing Church of Santa Maria ad Presepaem. Here, he had brought the Holy Shroud so that it could be venerated by S. Charles Borromeo, as the saint himself had made a vow to do so, during the Pest of Milan.

The ceiling is my favorite part, like the previous church it is full of gorgeous paintings and items, you can spend a lot of time looking at every detail. Another really hard place to shoot ahah

Chiesa di Santa Cristina

The church of Santa Cristina is located in Piazza San Carlo, in the historic center of the city. Together with the nearby "twin" church of San Carlo, located west of Via Roma (which actually separates the two buildings), it borders the south side of the square itself, towards Piazza Carlo Felice and the Torino Porta station. It is dedicated to Santa Cristina di Bolsena.

The church was founded by the regent of Piedmont Maria Cristina of France, who bought in 1639 the land on which the current temple stands, in memory of the firstborn son who just died, Francesco Giacinto di Savoia.

The smallest and darker church I ever visited but full of precious gold items and paintings, there were also a lot of people praying inside it. I hadn't enough time to visit the twin church on the other side of the road, such a shame.

I hope you like this new travel post, can't wait to do another one asap with some of the beautiful museums and palaces I had the chance to visit!