La piazzetta del Nuovo e il monastero dei Santi Maria e Andrea a Chieri

In Chieri, a short distance from Turin, a semi-circular square lies opposite a vast unbuilt space; both of them constitute anomalies in the densely built medieval urban fabric of their immediate surroundings. Until 1811, that spot was occupied by a massive monastic complex. The Monastery of the Saints Maria and Andrea, of the cloistered female branch of the Cistercian Order, was a wealthy and ancient local institution, the result of three religious entities dating back to the 13th century coalescing into a single unit. In 1728, Royal Architect Filippo Juvarra was tasked with the rebuilding of the church, which was then consecrated in 1733. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between the square and the church, the chronology and process of its construction, and the functions it hosted, as well as its formal relationship with two coeval squares from the Roman area: the Esedra della Pace, in Albano, and Piazza Sant’Ignazio, in Rome, both of which were designed by architect Filippo Raguzzini.