Description
The Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of the Portone, officially known as Nostra Signora Porta Paradisi — Our Lady, Gate of Paradise — stands at the junction of Corso Don Minzoni and Via Isnardi.
The imposing present-day structure was built between 1902 and 1912. It incorporates the surviving remains of an earlier sanctuary dating from the late seventeenth century, still visible from the outside as a separate section embedded within the apse of the twentieth-century building.
The sanctuary is distinguished by its harmonious, soaring Neo-Romanesque design. Its stucco capitals are richly decorated with scrolls and foliage motifs, which were gilded in the late 1940s.
The façade is preceded by an imposing portico supported by Byzantine-style granite columns and enclosed by an elegant wrought-iron screen. It is reached by a broad flight of steps.
The dome rests on four massive pillars, giving the interior the grandeur of a basilica, and rises to a height of 41 metres above floor level. At its summit, the lantern is crowned by a gilded copper statue of the Virgin Mary, measuring 3.7 metres in height. This brings the total height of the building to more than 50 metres.
The central nave, approximately 45 metres long, is equally impressive in scale.
The spiritual heart of the sanctuary is the ancient seventeenth-century chapel, which originally stood near the former San Marco Gate. Above its lintel is a fresco depicting the Blessed Virgin and Child between Saint Secundus and Saint Mark, painted by Gandolfino da Roreto between the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.
The image inspired such profound popular devotion that shortly after the construction of the sanctuary, a raised wooden gallery had to be built to allow worshippers to view it up close.
The sanctuary soon became an important place of devotion and has remained a pilgrimage destination for visitors from throughout Piedmont ever since.