San Giovanni Battista

San Giovanni Battista rises in Italy as a cathedral built over the remains of three Christian basilicas. Its pale stone façade catches the light and opens through three doors. Commissioned by Cardinal Domenico della Rovere, the Renaissance building took shape between 1491 and 1498 under Amedeo da Settignano, also known as Meo del Caprina. Inside, a Latin-cross plan, vaulted ceiling and sturdy piers organise the space.

An octagonal tower marks the crossing, while hexagonal and semicircular chapels open along the side walls. The Chapel of the Holy Shroud draws the architecture toward its most dramatic point. Guarino Guarini created this elevated circular chapel in the late seventeenth century to protect the cloth kept here for four centuries. Massive arches support a pierced conical vault, overlapping ribs and a cupola that sends light downward. Nineteenth-century funerary monuments to Savoy ancestors stand at its base, beneath a vault that resembles a stone lantern.