La Basilica Of San Giovanni Bosco

The Basilica of San Giovanni Bosco is on the Colle Don Bosco, at Morialdo, a small village of Castelnuovo Don Bosco, in the province of Asti and is included in the Archdiocese of Turin. Consecrated to St. John Bosco, it was erected between 1961 and 1966 on the site of the Cascina Billon - Damevino, birthplace of the saint.

The foundation stone was blessed the 11 June 1961 by the Archbishop of Turin Maurilio Fossati.

On 3 September 1988 the year of the first centenary of the death of Don Bosco, the church was visited by Pope John Paul II, who beatified occasion Laura Vicuña.The April 12, 2010 Pope Benedict XVI has elevated to the rank of minor basilica. The building was constructed in classical forms, interpreted according to contemporary models. The interiors are affected by the artistic trends of the time they were made.

The two floors of the basilica have a capacity of about 700 seats each. In the lower level dominating the marble, in the upper floor of wood.

The lower floor is the basement and therefore the crypt of the Basilica is a Latin cross with three naves separated by two sets of pillars. The aisles have a number of side altars. On the right of the transept there is the chapel of St. Francis de Sales, patron of the Salesian Congregation, on the left of the transept there is a pipe organ. On the apse wall of the presbytery dominated by a picture of Mario Caffaro Rore, representing the autumn outings which Don Bosco made with his boys from Turin to the Becchi, the nearby village where he had the house of his childhood, still it preserved.
 

In the crypt of the basilica are famous relics of St. John Bosco (a portion of the brain) and Saint Dominic Savio (a bone). Don Bosco's relic is placed in a chapel behind the apse wall, that of Dominic Savio in an urn with the simulacrum of his body before the altar of the saint to the left looking at the presbytery.

The upper floor is dominated by a large dome, the façade there are two bell towers along with the dome and the grand staircase in front, marked the exterior of the basilica.

The entrance to the upper floor there is a bronze statue of Don Bosco, dedicated to him by the Italian teaching staff in 1929. Remarkable, inside, the wooden statue of the Risen Christ on the apse, the pipe organ on the left looking at the 'altar, and fourteen wooden panels representing as many paintings of the Via Lucis.In front of the church there is a large open area designed to accommodate a large crowd of faithful during pilgrimages.