Curiously, near the Piazza Castello in Turin there is not only the famous baroque chapel "Capella della Sacra Sindone" with the Spanish-style dome in which the "Turin Shroud" is kept. In addition, on the Piazza Castello there is a second round church that looks almost identical on the inside (but is slightly smaller) and also has a Spanish-style dome, which is called the "Real Chiesa di San Lorenzo".
San Lorenzo cannot be recognized as a church from street level. That is why I initially walked past this church. This 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 as a stage for spectators, which became dilapidated a few years later and became a nuisance for the owners of the houses behind it. To resolve this problem, Carlo Emanuele I gave the affected strip of land in front of their buildings to the house owners in 1612 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 is how the uniform street facades that are so typical of Turin today were created for the first time, and in this way the San Lorenzo Church was "hidden" as an independent building. It is unbelievable that the Catholic Church, which was so powerful and wealthy at the time, allowed this "sacrifice" to be tolerated. As far as I know, there is hardly anything like this anywhere else in the world and it characterizes the impressive urban design of Turin as if in a magnifying glass.