The Copy of the Holy Shroud
A RELIC WANTED BY THE VERY RELIGIOUS CARLO FELICE

Inside the Castle, reachable either through the courtyard of San Massimo or via a passageway taken through the Green Gallery, there is the Chapel of San Massimo, built by Filippo di San Martino between 1642 and 1657 and changed in the 1820’s during the reign of Carlo Felice.

It was this very king who wished to celebrate his rise to the throne in 1822, with an exceptional exhibition of the Holy Shroud: for the occasion he had a copy of the relic made and then in front of witnesses from the Royal Household and the Holy See of Turin, he had the original and the copy placed over each other, thus causing the copy to be “sanctified” by contact with the original.

The copy was placed in the Sacristy of the Chapel of San Massimo in such a way as to ensure that the very religious Carlo Felice could worship it during his stays in Agliè.

In more recent times it was exhibited for the first time in 1998, during the exhibition organised by Cardinal Ballestrero, and during that of the year 2000, using the shrine which had still been used for the original relic in 1978.