Guarino Guarini’s Baroque masterpiece restored after 21 years
During the night between April 11 and 12, 1997, a fire destroyed the Chapel of the Shroud, a permanent scar for the entire city of Turin, one of the most impressive structures of European Baroque architecture at risk of collapse and seriously damaged. That was the starting point of one of the most important and complex restoration works, ended with its reopening on April 27.
The visitor’s eyes can once again look upward, starting from Antonio Bertola’s altar – which still bears the signs of the fire – then moving on up enveloped in the circularity of the plan, along the black marbles up to the drum where six large arched windows make the walls lighter and fill the interior with natural sunlight, going further up through six lines of hexagonal arches – staggered and superimposed – which decrease until they converge into the star/sun with the dove symbol of the Holy Spirit.
The Chapel of the Shroud: rich in symbols, metaphors of Salvation
A journey upward, rich in symbols, metaphors of Salvation, where everything is conceived based on multiples of the number three (Trinity) and on perfection (circle and triangle), a reference to the universe which moves towards light. A telescope-structure, a crescendo emphasized by the changes in the materials – from black marbles to gray ones – and the ever-growing light permeability of the Chapel in its higher parts.
A metaphorical project and a revolutionary structure conceived by the architect and Theatine monk for the House of Savoy, which had been in possession of the Shroud since 1453. The project for the construction of the Chapel started in the early Seventeenth century and the work was entrusted to Amedeo di Castellamonte (1611) and then Bernardino Quadri (1657), whom we owe the decision to set the building between the Royal Palace and the apse of the Cathedral dedicated to Saint John the Baptist (the Duomo). In 1667 the project was handed to Guarini who changed the architecture completely, opting for a circular plan, one level above the Duomo, and finished it in 1683, year of his death.
The Chapel of the Shroud from 1997 “the building site of knowledge and experimentation”
A work that was at risk of being lost forever because of the 1997 fire, if it hadn’t been for the restoration and reinforcement works recently concluded. A very long and complicated process, defined as “the building site of knowledge and experimentation”. Of knowledge for the careful analysis of the work and the advanced surveys of the statics of the structure. Of experimentation for the restoration method using replacements, innovative “demolition and restoration” techniques to give the stone a load-bearing function and where the marbles are “thick incrustations” against the solid structure at the back.
A reinforcement carried out at all levels, a surgery performed following “trial and error” processes in order to develop the best possible solution. A very long work which involved more than 200 professionals over an entire generation and which cost about 30 million Euros.
The Chapel reopens to the public today, as part of the Royal Museums of Turin and set between the Royal Palace, from which visitors gain access, and the Duomo which looks up to it: suspended at a height of 7 meters.
A Baroque masterpiece which provides the opportunity for new considerations on restoration and which is once again an element of the identity of Torino, which rediscovers it today after 21 years and which has changed greatly since the night of that terrible fire.
