Santa Croce, Baroque church in Turin, Italy

Santa Croce is a small baroque church on piazza Carlo Emanuele II in Turin, built to an elliptical plan by Filippo Juvarra. The oval interior rises directly into the dome, where a ring of windows replaces the drum; eight Gassino marble columns with composite capitals support it, and a lantern with tall windows closes the dome at about 25 metres. The bell tower by Giovanni Battista Borra reaches 30 metres.

Filippo Juvarra designed the church between 1718 and 1730 for Augustinian nuns, canonesses of the Lateran Congregation of the Order of Saint Augustine, relocating from an earlier site. The nuns were expelled in 1801 by the French revolutionary government, returned in 1817, and were expelled again in 1848 when ecclesiastical property was expropriated. Closed for worship that year, the convent became a military hospital and the church a soldiers' club.

Since 2012 the church has served Turin's Romanian Orthodox community, which celebrates the liturgy here in Romanian. The building stands on Piazza Carlo Emanuele II, known locally as piazza Carlina, and the 1927 reopening fell on 14 September, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which gives the church its name.

The church is open during regular service times, with hours displayed at the entrance for both visitors and worshippers. It is best to visit quietly and respectfully, as it remains an active place of worship.

The oval interior rises straight into the dome without a drum, replaced by a ring of windows; Juvarra's solution was striking for its time and perhaps cheaper to build. Eight Gassino marble columns with composite capitals support it, and the lantern closes the dome at about 25 metres.