Real Chiesa di San Lorenzo, Turin

This baroque church on the central Piazza Castello of Turin was designed in the 17th century by the mathematician-architect Guarino Guarini, whose fascination with geometry shaped its extraordinary interior. Above the plain facade, deliberately kept low to match the neighbouring royal palace, rises a dome built as an openwork lattice of interlacing ribs that admits light in a dazzling star pattern. Coloured marble, gilding and curving walls fill the space below. The church long served the ceremonies of the Savoy court next door.