Museum versus Chapel of the Holy Shroud. The octagonal hall of the Palace of Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy and King of Cyprus

The history of the conservation of the Holy Shroud – in the framework of the Savoy palaces between XVIth and XVIIth centuries – is a long and winding route among spaces not completely identified and other chapels dedicated to Saint Lawrence, another religious, and political pillar of the dynasty. A labyrinth on which many author wrote and tried to give solutions (Klaiber 1999, Dardanello 1988, 1993, 1999, 2006). In 1563 an ancient Romanesque church built in the north-east corner of the roman walls of Turin was turned into a Saint Lawrence Chapel. In 1633-37 in the middle of the palace garden a new round chapel was built with the same dedication, but already in 1628 in the Castle square another Saint Lawrence church is conceived, despite its late construction in 1670 by Guarino Guarini. At the same time, the dukes decided to have a chapel for the Holy Shroud built between the palace and the Cathedral. Many different ideas, projects and works followed (by Vitozzi and Castellamonte in 1611 and Quadri in 1657), but the works were completed according the drawings of another architect, Guarino Guarini. In the meanwhile the relic – often exposed in a specific structure in the Cathedral – was kept in the ducal palace on the main level, in a space turned into the duke’s wardrobe in 1611. For that reason it’s impossible that the octagonal hall with 8 columns at the ground floor – usually intended as the first chapel of the Holy Shroud, for instance by Rovere in 1858 – was built and used for that. At the same time is not possible to identify this in the Saint Lawrence Chapel built in 1577 and immediately turned in the Holy Shroud Chapel as stated by Klaiber. Records allow us to interpret this hall as a part of the Museum, conceived by Victor Amadeus 1st in 1634 in the remodelling of the palace according to the new royal status acquired since the 23rd of December 1632, or – on the other hand – as a relic of the Thermal Baths of Emmanuel Philibert.