Basilica di Don Bosco · 20 min in tram/bus
Basilica di Don Bosco · 20 min in tram/bus
Built between 1865 and 1868 to a design by Antonio Spezia, this basilica rose in Valdocco, the working-class district where Don Bosco had spent decades running a safehouse and oratory for poor and at-risk boys. The project wasn't an easy sell at first: the Town Hall initially rejected his proposed dedication to "Mary Help of Christians," and Don Bosco had to resubmit it under a more neutral name before construction could proceed.
The basilica now holds Don Bosco's own remains, and its single-nave interior is richly finished in multicolour marble beneath a neo-Palladian façade topped with a Madonna statue by Camillo Boggio (1867). It was further enlarged between 1935 and 1938 under architects Mario Ceradini and Giulio Vallotti, and remains an active pilgrimage site tied to the Salesian order Don Bosco founded.