Cathedral of Chieri

In its present appearance, the Cathedral of Chieri (which it would be more appropriate to call "Collegiate Church of Santa Maria della Scala") was built between 1405 and 1436, thanks to the interest of the Chapter of Canons, the Municipality, Duke Amadeus VIII and the main families of Chieri.

This large Gothic temple replaced a Romanesque church that had been built around 1016 by the bishop of Turin Landolfo, whose crypt and baptistery survive in it. But also the Collegiate Church of Landolfo was built on an early Christian church of the 5th-6th century and its cemetery, of which archaeological excavations have revealed numerous traces.

Latin cross-shaped, 74.35 m long, 20.80 wide at the aisles and 26.70 in the transept, 17 m high, the Cathedral of Chieri is one of the largest churches in Piedmont, lower only to the Cathedral of Asti and Saluzzo. In addition to the presbytery and the baptistery, it includes twenty chapels, which were originally contended for patronage by the wealthiest families of the city and the main trade guilds, which provided them with works of art and precious furnishings.

After maintaining its austere Gothic appearance for two centuries, starting in the 17th century, and even more so in the 18th century, it was heavily "baroqueised": stuccoes and paintings compromised the original appearance of the presbytery, choir and chapels. Only the naves were "saved", which were simply plastered and painted white.

At the end of the nineteenth century a radical restoration, which according to the declared intentions should have restored the church to its original Gothic appearance, actually replaced the improper baroque "dress" with a no less arbitrary Byzantine decoration, in those decades very fashionable.