Basilica di Superga

Frommer's Review

As thanksgiving to the Virgin Mary for Turin's deliverance from the French siege of 1706, Vittorio Amedeo II commissioned Juvarra, the Sicilian architect who did his greatest work in Turin, to build this baroque basilica on a hill high above the city. The exterior, with a beautiful neoclassical porch and lofty drum dome, is more interesting than the gloomy interior, a circular chamber beneath the dome with six chapels. The church serves as a pantheon for the House of Savoy, whose tombs are scattered about, many in the Crypt of Kings beneath the main chapel. The building also includes some royal apartments. The name "Superga," however, in the Italian memory will forever be associated with a plane crash there in 1949 that killed the members of the Torino soccer club, the reigning champions, who were flying home from Portugal. A small museum there about the "Grande Torino" squad is a fitting tribute to players who have become almost patron saints of the city. The trip up to the hilltop on a narrow railway through a verdant park is a favorite Torinese outing.

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