The Gran Madre di Dio church is one of the most important Catholic places of worship in Turin. Located in the square of the same name, it is located on the hydrographic right bank of the Po river, in the Borgo Po district, immediately overlooking the Vittorio Emanuele I bridge and the central Piazza Vittorio Veneto; together with these glimpses, combined with the view of the nearby Monte dei Cappuccini, it completes one of the best known and most evocative panoramas of the eastern area of the historic center of Turin.
The project was the work of the architect of the Savoy court Ferdinando Bonsignore (1760-1843) who gave the church forms and proportions openly inspired by those of the Pantheon in Rome, in the neoclassical-Hadrianic style. The first stone was laid by Vittorio Emanuele on 23 July 1818 [1] and the church was completed in 1831 as part of the fifth enlargement of the city of Turin wanted by Carlo Felice: with it also the large Piazza Vittorio Veneto (then Piazza Vittorio Emanuele), the last two blocks of via Porta Nuova, piazza Carlo Felice and the blocks facing the southern part of Corso dei Platiani (today Corso Fiume).[1]