Carmine, Turin

 

View toward high altar

I'm still in Turin, exploring some of the works by Juvarra. He  built his church for the Carmelite Order 1732-5. This time he goes for a highlongitudinal desiogn without transepts and dome.The wide nave has  three chapels each side with high open galleries above the chapels. This means two arches one above the other, with no clerestory.  The windows of the gallery provide light for the nave. The nave wall has become liked a skeleton of high pillars. Wittkower believes this is unprecedented in Italy.There had of course been open galleries in the Middle Ages. The first appearance in Renaissance artchitecture and with a barrel roof was at St Michael, Minich (1583-97) and was popular thereafter in Germany. Juvarra is likely to have known this and decided to use it here. Often chapels, particularly in Jesuit churches, had been dim,. Here the chapels derive their light from oval openings from the gallery windows above. The idea of getting hidden light and conducting it through an opening began in Italy with Bernini (St Teresa altar) and was used later in Austria and Germany for whole chapels, It seems Juvarra now may have used this in Turin for his chapels at the Carmine. 

See the little video below  to experience the interior and the side chapels in particular.

Facade built 1872 and restored in 1950s.