Immacolata Concezione, Chieri

The church is part of the parish of the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria della Scala, Chieri.[1] The church has had a number of dedications over the years. Originally dedicated to San Diego, in the early nineteenth century there were two paintings at the altar, one of the Sacred Heart, the other of Saints Luigi Gonzaga and Francesco de Sales, and the church had a double dedication to the Sacred Heart and San Luigi Gonzaga. The dedication to the Sacred Heart was subsequently assigned the first chapel on the right, the celebration of the feast of San Luigi Gonzaga was transferred to Sant'Antonio Abate, and a wooden statue of the Immaculate Conception was relocated from the destroyed church of San Francesco d'Assisi and placed here.[2]

The church's construction began in the 17th century and was not finalized for decades. On 19 October 1664 Msgr. Michelangelo Broglia, bishop of Vercelli, laid the foundation stone of the church. The architect was Antonio Bettino from Lugano. The style is that of Baroque architecture. The terracotta façade, adorned with six stucco statues, was built very late, between 1722 and 1758, possibly by the Chieri architect Mario Ludovico Quarini.

The interior's main altarpiece was painted by Daniel Seiter. The main relics of the church are those of St Valentine, represented by a wooden sculpture. In the presbytery is the tomb of Giovanni Comollo, a close friend of Giovanni Bosco from the seminary. The sacristy has a large canvas by Caraccioli. In 1681, the organ was transferred from the church of the Annunziata, an operation carried out at his expense by Count Gabaleone, who had acquired the patronage of the chapel of San Francesco de Sales. After the collapse of the dome in 1714, the church was reconstructed by Filippo Juvarra.[3]

Construction on the adjacent convent-seminary was begun in the 17th century for the Oratorians of San Filippo Neri; the architect was Pietro Angelo Galletti. In the early nineteenth century the building was used as a city hall. From 1821 to 1949 it was a diocesan seminary for Turin.[1] Don Bosco studied at the seminary from 1835 to 1841.[4]

A museum, Centro Visite Don Bosco, was built in the former seminary in 2011. It has exhibits on the life and work of the founder of the Salesian Order, Giovanni Bosco, who studied at the seminary for nearly half a decade starting in 1835.[5][6]