The great Salesian basilica of Maria Ausiliatrice dates back to the late 1860s, wanted by Don Giovanni Bosco to have a larger temple to accommodate the numerous crowds of young people arriving to his oratory, founded in 1846.
In February 1863 Don Bosco presented to the Town Hall the project for the “New church to Maria Ausiliatrice”. But the Building Permit Office rejected it because the title “Mary Help of the Christians” was considered “unpopular, inappropriate, tinged with bigotry”.
Don Bosco, with typical peasant cunning, went ahead and resubmitted the same project with the new name “Church in Valdocco” and approval arrived.
The Shrine, in the shape of a Latin cross, was very sober and bare, with no marble or decorations on the walls. Even the single dome was just whitewashed. Today, inside the Basilica, we can find: the high altar, the painting of Maria Ausiliatrice, the major and minor domes, the two side chapels of the presbytery, the tribunes on the side chapels, the gallery behind the high altar, the vestry and the statue of Maria Ausiliatrice.
Sources:
https://edificisacri.it/it/chiese/maria-ausiliatrice/
