Ex-monastery of Santa Monica - University

The current building, erected in the first half of the seventeenth century, became the headquarters of the Augustinian nuns in 1642. In the eighteenth century, following resourceful property transactions and despite the protests of the town government, the nuns expanded the monastery to incorporate an entire block. The monastery, a complex of buildings, was distinguished by the magnificent square courtyard and the church embellished by precious friezes and exquisite lace hangings made by the nuns.
In 1808, following the suppression of the religious orders, the building was transformed into a structure for the poor, the Deposito di Mendicità, and was refurbished extensively. In 1820 the nuns returned to the monastery, only to abandon it for good in 1857, following enactment of the Rattazzi Law suppressing contemplative religious orders. During the Risorgimento the building was turned into barracks for some of the soldiers from the 2nd "Cacciatori delle Alpi" regiment, formed in the monastery of Santa Chiara in 1859. The troops were under the command of the General Garibaldi, who - according to what was reported by the historian Casimiro Turletti - came to Savigliano three times to inspect them. The building was then purchased by the military administration to turn it into a hospital, initially as a branch and then as a divisional hospital. According to the terms of an agreement with the local government, the rooms in the west wing once used by the nuns, including the Palazzo Danna d'Usseglio, were allocated as lodgings for the medical officers. Fully operational during the two world wars, the hospital gradually became less important and stopped being used in 1973.
In the early 2000s the University of Turin, in agreement with the municipality of Savigliano, decided to turn the complex into a university campus. The renovation work took up the traditional construction techniques and historical evolution of the structure. An Italian garden was created in the quadrilateral, taking up the plan of the convent garden as depicted in the first town plan of Savigliano, drawn up by Maurizio Eula in 1841 and preserved in the Historic Archives of the Town of Savigliano.