Basilica of Superga in Turin, Italy

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2022

Basilica of Superga; Credit – Di Antoniors81 – Opera propria, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26674899

The Basilica of Superga is a Roman Catholic church located in Turin (Torino in Italian), Italy. The Royal Crypt, built under the Basilica of Superga, is one of the traditional burial places of the members of the House of Savoy. Two Kings of Italy (who came from the House of Savoy), Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I, were interred in the Pantheon in Rome. The earlier generations of the House of Savoy as well as Carlo Felice, King of Sardinia and Umberto II, the last King of Italy, are buried in Hautecombe Abbey, the ancestral burial site of the House of Savoy, now in Saint-Pierre-de-Curtille near Aix-les-Bains in Savoy, France.

The House of Savoy had been Counts and then Dukes of Savoy, since the 11th century and ruled from the city of Turin, now in northern Italy. Vittorio Amedeo II, Duke of Savoy became King of Sicily in 1713 as a result of his participation in the War of the Spanish Succession. However, in 1720, Vittorio Amedeo II was forced to exchange the Kingdom of Sicily for the less important Kingdom of Sardinia after objections from the Quadruple Alliance (Great Britain, France, Habsburg Austria, and the Dutch Republic).

Sardinia, now in Italy, is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea after Sicily but the Kings of Sardinia of the House of Savoy ruled from Turin, the capital of the Duchy of Savoy. They styled themselves as Kings of Sardinia because the title was superior to their original lesser title as Dukes of Savoy. However, they retained the regnal numerical order of the Dukes of Savoy. The children of the Kings of Sardinia were styled “of Savoy.”

Vittorio Emanuele II became the last King of Sardinia upon the abdication of his father in 1849. He then became a driving force behind the Italian unification movement along with Giuseppe Garibaldi, a general and nationalist, and Giuseppe Mazzini, a politician and journalist. Garibaldi conquered Naples and Sicily, the territories of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, while the Sardinian troops occupied the central territories of the Italian peninsula, except Rome and part of Papal States. With all the newly acquired land, Vittorio Emanuele II was proclaimed the first King of the new, united Kingdom of Italy in 1861.

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History of the Basilica of Superga

Photo taken by Italian photographer Giacomo Brogi, circa 1850 – 1851; Credit – Wikipedia

The Basilica of Superga, now in Turin, Italy, is located at the top of the Superga, a 2,205 ft/672-meter hill. During the 117-day 1706 Siege of Turin in the War of the Spanish Succession, over 44,000 French soldiers surrounded the fortified citadel of Turin defended by about 10,500 Savoy soldiers. On August 28, 1706, Vittorio Amedeo II, Duke of Savoy (later the first King of Sardinia) and his cousin Prince Eugenio of Savoy-Carignano climbed the Superga hill to better examine the position of troops so they could develop battle strategies. On September 2, 1706, Vittorio Amedeo II and Eugenio once again climbed the Superga. They entered a small church on the hill where Vittorio Amedeo II prostrated himself in front of a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary as Madonna delle Grazie, Our Lady of Grace, and vowed that if the Virgin Mary allowed him to be victorious in, the Siege of Turin, he would build a magnificent church at the top of the hill dedicated to her. On September 7, 1706, the forces of Vittoria Amadeo II and Eugenio won a victory.

 

Vittorio Amedeo II kept his vow and commissioned Italian architect Filippo Juvarra to design the magnificent church at the top of the Superga. The Basilica of Superga, designed in the Rococo and Neoclassical styles, was constructed from 1717 to 1731. On November 1, 1731, the Basilica of Superga was consecrated and dedicated to Our Lady of Grace whose original wooden statue that Vittorio Amadeo II had prostrated himself before is kept in the Chapel of the Vow on the left side of the main altar of the Basilica of Superga.

The memorial to the victims of the Superga air disaster at the Basilica of Superga; Credit – Wikipedia

On May 4, 1949, an airplane carrying the Italian football (soccer) team Torino Football Club nicknamed Il Grande Torino, was returning to Turin, Italy after traveling to Lisbon, Portugal where the team had played the Portuguese football (soccer) team Benfica. At around 5:00 PM, the airplane was flying over the outskirts of Turin and was preparing for landing, when pilot Pierluigi Meroni, a World War II flying veteran, was warned that the weather in Turin was poor with fog, showers, and strong wind gusts. Minutes later, the airplane crashed into the retaining wall at the back of the Basilica of Superga. All thirty-one passengers which included players, coaching staff, team officials, journalists, and the flight crew were killed. Only three players who did not travel with the team because of injury or illness escaped the disaster. The walls damaged by the impact of the airplane are still visible, as it was decided not to rebuild them. This tragic event is commemorated by a museum and a plaque on the rear building, and a solemn mass is celebrated at the basilica every May 4 in memory of the victims.

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The Exterior of the Basilica of Superga

The Basilica of Superga; Credit – Wikipedia

During the construction, building materials were carried up the hill by donkeys. The hill was leveled by about 131 feet/40 meters to create a flat area for the basilica’s construction. A staircase leads to a large portico supported by eight Corinthian columns inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. Atop the basilica is a 213-foot/65-meter high Baroque-style dome with two symmetrical bell towers on either side.

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The Interior of the Basilica of Superga

The interior of the Basilica of Superga; Credit – Di Paris Orlando – Opera propria, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74180912

The interior was designed with a Greek cross plan, a church plan in the form of a Greek cross, with a square central mass and four arms of equal length. The diagram below shows the difference between the Greek cross plan and the more widely used Latin cross plan.

Greek cross (Church of Saint Sava) and Latin cross (St. Paul’s Cathedral) in church floorplans; Credit – Wikipedia

The Main Altar; Credit – Di Incola – Opera propria, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32157514

The interior has six chapels, four altars, and the main altar which is decorated with sculptures and monuments in Carrara marble. In the Vow Chapel is the original wooden statue of the Madonna delle Grazie, Our Lady of Grace, the statue Vittorio Amedeo II knelt in front of, and asked for the grace to defeat the French army.

The wooden statue of the Madonna delle Grazie; Credit – Wikipedia

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Burials at the Basilica of Superga

The Hall of the Queens – Notice the burial niches; Credit – Basilica of Superga

The original plans for the Basilica of Superga included a burial crypt but the plans were temporarily shelved because of funding issues. In 1774, forty-three years after the consecration of the Basilica of Superga, Vittorio Amedeo III, King of Sardinia commissioned architect Francesco Martinez, grandson of the original architect Filippo Juvara, to build a burial crypt. In 1778, the burial crypt was consecrated and arrangements began for the reburial of some royal remains that had been interred in other burial sites.

The Royal Crypt is divided into five rooms, including the Hall of Kings, the Hall of the Queens, and the Hall of Children, where children and princes and princesses who never reigned were interred. While there are some tombs, most burials are in niches along the walls of the rooms as seen in the above photo.

Traditionally, at the death of the sovereign, his remains were placed in the center of the Hall of Kings. Upon the death of the next sovereign, the previous sovereign’s remains were then moved to one of the niches. The last sovereign buried at the Basilica of Superga was Carlo Alberto I, King of Sardinia. He died in 1849 and his tomb remains in the center of the Hall of Kings because his successors became Kings of Italy and were buried elsewhere.

Hall of the Kings (First Room)

Tomb of Carlo Alberto, King of Sardinia in the Hall of Kings; Credit – Wikipedia

Second Room

Hall of the Queens (Third Room)

The funeral of Amedeo of Savoy-Aosta, 5th Duke of Aosta on July 1, 2021 at the Basilica of Superga

Fourth Room

Hall of the Children (Fifth Room)

  • Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy (born and died 1705), son of Vittorio Amedeo II, King of Sardinia
  • Vittorio Amadeo, Prince of Piedmont (1699 – 1715), son and heir of Vittorio Amedeo II, King of Sardinia, died in his teens from smallpox, first buried in the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, moved to the Basilica of Superga
  • Vittorio Amedeo of Savoy, Duke of Aosta (1723 – 1725), son of Carlo Emanuele III, King of Sardinia, moved from his original burial site in 1790
  • Carlo Francesco Romualdo of Savoy, Duke of Chablais (born and died 1733), son of Carlo Emanuele III, King of Sardinia, moved from his original burial site in 1790
  • Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, Duke of Aosta (1731 – 1735), son of Carlo Emanuele III, King of Sardinia, moved from his original burial site in 1790
  • Maria Vittoria of Savoy (1740 – 1742), daughter of Carlo Emanuele III, King of Sardinia
  • Carlo Francesco of Savoy, Duke of Aosta (1738 – 1745), son of Carlo Emanuele III, King of Sardinia, moved from his original burial site in 1790
  • Maria Elisabetta Carlotta of Savoy (1752 – 1753), daughter of Vittorio Amedeo III, King of Sardinia, moved from her original burial site in 1790
  • Amedeo Alessandro of Savoy (1754 – 1755), son of Vittorio Amedeo III, King of Sardinia,
  • Maria Anna Vittoria of Savoy (1683 – 1763), daughter of Luigi Tommaso of Savoy-Soissons, Count of Soissons, wife of Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen, marriage dissolved, moved from her original burial site in 1921
  • Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy (1729 – 1767), daughter of Carlo Emanuele III, King of Sardinia, first buried at the convent of St. Andrew in Chieri, Kingdom of Sardinia, moved to the chapel in the cemetery at the church of St. George in Chieri in 1811, and then moved to the Basilica of Superga in 1823
  • Maria Cristina of Savoy (1760 – 1768), daughter of Vittorio Amedeo III, King of Sardinia
  • Eleonora Maria Teresa of Savoy (1728 – 1781), daughter of Carlo Emanuele III, King of Sardinia
  • Maria Adelaide of Savoy (1794 – 1795), daughter of Vittorio Emanuele I, King of Sardinia
  • Maria Felicita of Savoy (1730 – 1801), daughter of Carlo Emanuele III, first buried in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles in Rome, moved to the Royal Basilica of Superga in 1858
  • A daughter (1800 – 1801), daughter of Vittorio Emanuele I, King of Sardinia, moved from her original burial site in 1939
  • Benedetto of Savoy, Duke of Chablais (1741 – 1808), son of Carlo Emanuele III, King of Sardinia, first buried at the Church of San Nicolo dei Cesarini in Rome, moved to the Royal Basilica of Superga in 1926
  • Maria Anna of Savoy, Duchess of Chablais (1757 – 1824), daughter of Vittorio Amedeo III, King of Sardinia, wife and niece of Benedetto of Savoy, Duke of Chablais
  • Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy (born and died 1852), son of Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia, King of Italy
  • Carlo Alberto of Savoy, Duke of Chablais (1851 – 1854), son of Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia, King of Italy
  • Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy (born and died 1855), son of Vittorio Emanuele II
  • Prince Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte (1822 – 1891), husband of Maria Clotilde of Savoy, a daughter of Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia, King of Italy
  • Maria Clotilde of Savoy, Princess Napoleon (1843 – 1911), daughter of Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia, King of Italy, wife of Prince Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte
  • Prince Louis Bonaparte (1864 – 1932), son of Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte and Maria Clotilde of Savoy, grandson of Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia, King of Italy
  • Lydia di Arenberg, Duchess of Genoa (1905 – 1977), wife of Prince Filiberto of Savoy, 4th Duke of Genoa
  • Adalberto of Savoy-Genoa, Duke of Bergamo (1898 – 1982), son of Tommaso, 2nd Duke of Genoa
  • Filiberto of Savoy, 4th Duke of Genoa (1895 – 1990), son of Tommaso, 2nd Duke of Genoa

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Works Cited

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