San Michele Arcangelo, Baroque church in Turin, Italy
San Michele Arcangelo is a Baroque church in Turin featuring classical stone decorations and symmetrical architectural design throughout. The building displays the characteristic style of late 18th-century Italian religious architecture with carefully detailed stonework.
Construction began in 1784 during a period of religious architectural growth in late 18th-century Turin. The church was built when the city was creating new religious structures with lasting Baroque influence.
Since 1965 the church has served Turin's Arbëresh community, Italo-Albanians whose families came from Calabria and Sicily; about 10,000 faithful belong to the parish, some 4,000 in Turin and its surroundings. The Byzantine liturgy is celebrated in Albanian and Greek, and the church publishes a Sunday leaflet, La Domenica (E Diela). Icons hang in the church, some brought from the Balkans, others painted by community members.
San Michele Arcangelo stands at the corner of Piazza Cavour and Via Giolitti in Borgo Nuovo, a short walk from Turin's historic centre. The entrance opens onto the street corner, so the church is easy to pick out when crossing the square. It serves the Italo-Albanian community with the Byzantine liturgy, so services follow that rite rather than the Roman one.
The church keeps a collection of icons, some brought from the Balkans (Albania, Greece) and others painted by members of the Arbëreshë community itself. It also publishes a Sunday leaflet, La Domenica (E Diela in Albanian), continuing the earlier bulletin Arbëresh Piemonte.
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