page_title: Filippo Juvarra
section_title: Churches in Turin
hierarchical_section_title: Filippo Juvarra / Churches in Turin
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Basilica di Superga, vista esterna English: Basilica of Superga, external view
context_page_description: Filippo Juvarra was an Italian architect, active in a late-Baroque style, who worked primarily in Italy, Spain, and Portugal.
context_section_description: Juvarra's period of most intensive activity as an architect began in 1714, when he was recruited to Piedmont where Victor Amadeus II of Savoy first employed him in a scenographic project, then elevated Juvarra to the position of chief court architect.
  Juvarra designed the facade of the church of Santa Cristina (1715–1718), the church of San Filippo, the church of Santa Croce, the Basilica della Natività, and the chapel of San Giuseppe (1725) in the church of Santa Teresa in Turin. He also built in Turin the church of the Blessed Virgin of the Carmine (1732-1736), where the space is concentrated around the central hall with the scenographic effect of light falling from above. He also helped decorate the interior of many churches in Turin.
  One of Juvarra's masterworks, the basilica church of Superga, was built in 1731 and rises at the top of a mountain overlooking the city of Turin. It was part-picturesque monument and part-royal mausoleum for the family of Savoy. Reputedly, the site was chosen because of a vow taken here by the then duke, and future king, Victor Amadeus II of Savoy, as he surveyed the field of operations while defending the city from the besieging French armies during the Battle of Turin. Construction was arduous, and took over fourteen years, including two years to flatten the mountaintop; and at incredible cost and effort to bring the stones and supplies to the peak. Behind the church was a monastery. The classical portico is appended to a centralized church with a highly vertical, seventy five meter, baroque dome; the latter creates a mountain atop a mountain effect.
  He also built other churches, including the bizarre, Borrominesque church of San Gregorio in Messina, Sicily. In Mantua, he added a tall buttressed dome to the Alberti church of Sant'Andrea.
caption: Basilica of Superga
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