Royal Church of San Lorenzo

Turin Cathedral is dedicated to John the Baptist. It is the highest-ranking church in the Piedmontese capital of Turin and the cathedral of the archdiocese. Located on Piazza San Giovanni, it forms an outstanding architectural ensemble together with the castle. The Shroud Chapel is also located here. The centre of the Shroud Chapel, made of black marble, is dominated by an altar structure designed by Antonio Bertola in 1694, which contains the silver shrine for the highly revered shroud. After it was only narrowly saved in the fire of 1997, it is rarely exhibited for conservation reasons, most recently in 2015. A reproduction is usually shown in the bulletproof display case.

Curiously, near the Piazza Castello in Turin there is not only the famous baroque chapel with the Spanish-style dome in which the "Turin Shroud" is kept - the "Capella della Sacra Sindone". In addition, on the Piazza Castello there is a second, almost identical (slightly smaller) round church with a Spanish-style dome, which also bears the name "Real Chiesa di San Lorenzo".This church is not immediately recognizable as a church from street level because it is hidden by the facade of the Piazza Castello. This is the real curiosity of this highlight. As far as I know, there is hardly anything like it anywhere else in the world and it characterizes the impressive urban design of Turin like a magnifying glass.The strange urban development situation is a late consequence of the double wedding of the daughters of Duke Carlo Emanuele I in 1608. At that time, the Duke built a portico with a spectator stand, which a few years later became dilapidated and a nuisance for the owners of the houses behind it. To resolve this problem, in 1612 the Duke gave the house owners the affected strip of land in front of their buildings, with the condition that they build a portico and two floors above it in accordance with the design of the court architect Ascanio Vitozzi. This was the first time that the uniform street facades that are so typical of Turin today were created.

Kathrin's tip refers to the church "Sacra Sindora".