Chiesa della Gran Madre di Dio

The Gran Madre di Dio is a Neoclassical church on the western bank of the Po, built between 1818 and 1831 to celebrate the return of the House of Savoy to Turin after the Napoleonic occupation. Designed by Ferdinando Bonsignore, its circular plan and pedimented portico deliberately echo the Pantheon in Rome, and it was declared an Italian national monument. Positioned at the foot of the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele I, it closes the visual axis of Piazza Vittorio Veneto — one of the largest Baroque squares in Europe — making it one of the city's most photographed perspectives over the river. Turin has long cultivated a reputation as a city of esoteric energy, and the Gran Madre sits at its center: local legend holds that the Holy Grail is concealed beneath the church, a claim that draws as many curious visitors as devout ones.