The first monastery was built on this plot of land in 1638 during the extension of the city westwards and it was founded by Giovanna Francesca Frémiot de Chantal, teacher of the Ordine delle Visitandine. The primitive nucleus grew over the course of the century to the point when it occupied the whole area belonging to San Francesco de Sales, even though today only the church remains, scenically situated on the corner of the Via XX Settembre and Via Arcivescovado roads, according to the design of Francesco Lanfranchi. On the inside, in the shape of a Greek cross, the deep presbytery with a magnificent altar in polychromatic marble, the work of Carlo Emanuele Lanfranchi, is remarkable; maybe it was a design by Juvarra which inspired the altar in the left chapel. In the very large Cappellone or Choir of the Monks, the clothes of various sisters and several princesses of the Savoy family lay at rest.
