Cattedrale Metropolitana di San Giovanni Battista (Duomo di Torino)
Cathedral is located in one of the richest points of the city's history, a few steps from archaeological area and adjacent to Roman Theater. Sacred area was once made up of three early Christian churches in Romanesque style, torn down between 1490 and 1492. Bell tower was built earlier and completed in 1469, can still be seen beside Cathedral with its 63 meters high. In 1491, Bianca di Monferrato, Savoy regent, regent laid the foundation stone of St. John's Cathedral, whose construction was entrusted to Amedeo de Francisco da Settignano (called "Meo del Caprino"), who worked on it until his death. The work was completed in 1505. The project for enlargement, in order to create a worthy environment for the preservation of Holy Shroud, it dates back to 1649, when Bernardino Quadri arrived in Turin at the court of Charles Emmanuel II. In 1667 he was called to complete the work Guarino Guarini. At the behest of King Carlo Alberto Cathedral was further embellished with a copy of the table of Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, created by Luigi Cagna, in 1835. Precious Shroud chapel was badly damaged by fire in 1997, but Holy Relic it was brought to safety. Cathedral is one of the two still see examples of Renaissance architecture in the city along with Scaglia di Verrua Palace. Outside it shows a white marble facade with three doors, of which the main one surmounted by a pediment and flanked by two volutes. The interior is austere, on a Latin cross plant and three naves, rich in works of art by painters and sculptors. At the altar of the second chapel on the right you can see, for example, the altarpiece of Crispin and Crispiniano saints, by Giovanni Martino Spanzotti, which is also attributed to the painting of Baptism of Jesus, in the sacristy, where is also the tomb of bishop Claude de Seyssel, whose funerary monument, dating from 1526, is work by sculptor Matteo Sanmicheli.
