Duomo di San Giovanni Battista Torino

In 1996, during the excavation for the re-paving of the San Giovanni Square, in the cellars of a wing of the Palazzo Vecchio of San Giovanni, two vases full of coins emerged, well placed in a hole. The cylindrical vessel was filled with eight layers with heads, half heads and silver horns of Savoy, France, Portugal, Milan, Asti, Genoa, Casale, Mantua, Lorena and San Gallo. The second vase, on the other hand, contained a hardly removable mass of about 6,500 bigillon coins. The small treasure, whose total value should have been around 270 golden ducats, was hidden by the owner between 1536 and 1538, during the first turbulent period of the French occupation in Turin, a moment of great difficulty for the city because of the famine and the permanent state of conflict with the occupying army.