Like the peculiarity of its name which means ‘Church of Our Lady of Consolation’ the history of this great worship place also went through great tumult and faith. As per historical accounts this church was first established by great 5th century bishop Maximus from the remains of an erstwhile pagan temple, but at that time the church was of much smaller size with a small chapel dedicated to Virgin Mary and an image of Madonna. The present architectural expanse of the church was first initiated by the monks in 11th century. It is considered as the oldest Turin building that survived after the so called Roman architectures.

It is said that a blind man came to Turin in search of the Madonna image kept within this church and upon confronting the image he regained his sight and this miraculous event made people believe in the heavenly significance of the image and the church and consequently in the 12th century the Madonna image was taken inside and the church was elevated to the rank of basilica. After remaining at the center stage of worship in the city of Turin for close to five consecutive centuries it again went through architectural renovation and enlargement by the famous Baroque architect Filippo Juvarra and from 1720 to 1740 many of its architectural aspects and places of significance were redesigned and reengineered.