Superga

The legendary Carthaginian general Hannibal made, in 218 B. C., his famous crossing of the Alps, in a surprising incursion into the Italic peninsula not via the Mediterranean, but the conquered territories in the Iberian peninsula. When the Punic army descended the mountains on its way to Rome they found the city of the Taurini (the “men of the mountains”) on the margins of the river Po. After all offers of cooperation were rejected, Hannibal's army razed the city to the ground in just three days⁰, and the few survivors fled to the hills on the eastern side of the river.

Two centuries later the Romans, having won the Punic Wars and established themselves as the dominant Mediterranean power, refounded that city under emperor Augustus, naming it Iulia Augusta Taurinorum and turning it into one of their main fortified centers in the northern end of the peninsula, at that time still the liminal zone of the growing empire.

assedio di Torino

In 1706 that same city, which by then was known as Torino and had become the capital of the Ducato di Savoia, lay again under siege. The duke (and future king of Sicily and Sardinia) Vittorio Amedeo II di Savoia, worried by the continual territorial expansion of Louis XIV (the Sun King), which had already extended from France to large regions of Spain and Italy, had decided to join the opposing coalition, the Grand Alliance. In retaliation, an army of more than 44,000 men marched over and conquered city after city in Piemonte, leaving the capital as the only remaining hope for the Savoia.

About 10,500 soldiers stood inside the citadel, behind the defensive walls whose foundations had been laid by the Romans. After almost four months of siege, the duke received his cousin Eugenio di Savoia, count of Soissons, and his miraculous reinforcement of 20,000 men. Looking for a high point to survey the armies on the plain, the two ascended the same hills to which the Taurini had escaped two millennia earlier. There, while visiting a small chapel in the wilderness dedicated to the Madonna delle Grazie, Vittorio Amedeo made a promise to build a large basilica in that same place if peace returned to the city.

And return it did: on 7 September¹, after 117 days and a battle that is considered one of the greatest victories in Italy's history, the siege came to an end and the city was liberated. This was a turning point for the war, which ended seven years later and made Vittorio Amedeo the king of Sicily, the first of his house to acquire the regal title, beginning the dynastic succession that a century and a half later would become the Kingdom of Italy.

Juvarra

While in Sicily for his coronation, the king met Filippo Juvarra, an ordained priest from Messina and an accomplished engraver, goldsmith, architect, and scenographer. The two rapidly developed a relationship of mutual admiration, and the newly-crowned king personally chose Juvarra to transform Torino into a capital fit for a kingdom. He soon became chief court architect and left his mark on several architectural masterpieces in the region².

His first assigned project was the awesome construction of the basilica on top of the collina torinese. It began in 1716 with the lowering of the hill by 41m to create a level surface large enough to serve as the foundation³, an operation which took only a year, despite being performed using only shovels, pickaxes, and wheelbarrows, with materials carried on the back of donkeys over a road that was little more than a mountain trail. The building was completed in 1731, an architectural masterpiece, with its mixture of baroque and neoclassical styles. It still conserves the XVI century wooden statue to which Vittorio Amedeo made his promise, in a chapel next to the main altar, Capella del Voto.

At the ground level, four structures surround the round walls of the main body of the church. Three sets of stairs at the front lead to the large neoclassical portico with eight Corinthian marble columns. A pair of twin, symmetric bell towers rise on each side. At the back, hidden behind the monumental facade, a monastery with a cloister was built to house the Ordine dei Servi di Maria, later becoming an ecclesiastical academy⁴.

Crowning the construction is the monumental cupola which, no doubt due to the formative years Juvarra spent studying architecture in Rome, incorporates many aspects of Michelangelo's dome of Basilica di San Pietro. Sitting above the 34x51m structure of the first floor, it rises to a height of 75m which, combined with the 670m of the hill, makes it visible from the entire plain (some 500m below).

significance

There are many not-so-subtle references to the event the basilica was built to celebrate. It does not face west, as is usual for Christian churches, but is instead aligned with a wide and incredibly long street⁵, conspicuously named corso Francia, and both face directly the country which the Savioa had so fiercely fought against and defeated.

So much so that this almost resulted in its destruction when Napoleon brought a new period of French occupation to the region, and all the horrors of the French revolution. Only through great courage and resolution was the basilica — all at once a symbol of faithful devotion, monarchical power and achievement, and opposition to France, all despised by the revolutionaries — saved from being yet another victim.

Because of all its history, Superga became a spiritual center for the Savoia. By the request of Vittorio Amedeo II, a crypt was excavated under the altar to serve as the burial place for the members of the house⁶, who ever since the move to Torino had not had a place dedicated to the memory and veneration of their ancestors. From then on, all members of the house were buried there — until the unification, when those who were kings and queens of Italy started being buried in the Pantheon in Rome.

After king Umberto I, il re buono, was assassinated in Monza in 1900, Superga was chosen as the place to build a monument in his honor, which can be found right across the street in front of the basilica. In it, a Celtic warrior, symbolizing the people of Piemonte, points his hand to the sky and his sword to a shield with the emblem of the Savoia family, standing next to an eagle being shot by an arrow on top of a Corinthian column, the king who was killed while in service of his people.

Another event which completely unexpectedly became part of its history was the tragical accident which in 1949 killed the entire football team of Grande Torino, known as “gli Invincibili” for their unparalleled achievements. As a result of the extremely bad weather (a common occurrence in the region) and possibly equipment failure, the aeroplane which carried the team back from Lisbon hit the back wall of the monastery while flying at 180km/h, leaving no survivors. A funerary monument marks the exact spot where the collision occurred.

today

Ever since it was built, the basilica has turned Superga into an attraction for locals and tourists alike. Other than to see the church itself, visitors to this day come for the same reason the duke did three hundred years ago: the spectacular view of the Alpine arc and the valley below, extending from Monviso to the south to the Gran Paradiso to the north.

A winding staircase of 131 steps leads from the ground floor to the base of the cupola, with an almost 360° unimpeded view of the surroundings — although you do have to be fortunate with the weather: because of the infamous constant presence of fog and urban pollution in the valley, it took me three visits to be able to see anything at all (which is why, for those who have a good eye, there is such variable weather and lighting conditions in the pictures below).

Just the path up to the basilica is an attraction in itself: departing from Sassi, the main road is about 5km long, ascending almost 500m. Those who are not interested in the (quite intense) physical challenge have an excellent alternative: a funicular railway, inaugurated in 1884 (when it was powered by a steam engine), provides a scenic trip up and down the hill.

Conversely, those wanting an even greater challenge can loose themselves in the many trails which cross the area, a natural park, a few kilometers from the city center, extending over an area of around 400.000m², full of wild animals, dense woods, and streams running down the slopes.

notes

0. The army consisted of 26,000 men and, even more famously, 21 elephants, against which the small urban center of the Celtic tribe stood no chance.

1. Curiously, the second important date, other than the 20th of the same month, which Torino shares with my home state.

2. To cite a few, which is not much different from listing the most famous places in the region:

   • Villa della Regina, the Armeria and Scala delle Forbici in Palazzo Reale, Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi, and parts of Reggia di Venaria Reale
   • the facade of Palazzo Madama and Chiesa di Santa Cristina
   • the churches of Signora del Carmine, San Filippo Neri, Santa Croce, and Basilica della Natività

3. The district of Sassi (“stones” in Italian) at the foot of the hill is named after the deposits resulting from this excavation.

4. One of its directors was Antonio Martini, who wrote the first Italian translation of the Vulgata, the Latin Bible.

5. In fact, its 11.75km of extension make it the longest straight street in Europe.

6. Tombe Reali, which can be visited. You have to do it: unfortunately, I cannot show how spectacular the it is since, as is usual for such somber places, photographs are not allowed. The amazing guides there will tell you much more than I can do in this space about the history of Superga.

A poet, a painter, a musician, an architect: the man or woman who is not one of these is not a Christian.