Tour audio Outside of the house

The house of Dominic Savio in Mondonio, located near the ancient cemetery chapel, is a modest rural dwelling that evokes that of Don Bosco. Composed of two rooms per floor, it was dimly lit and spartan. The ground floor rooms were a kitchen, with a still-visible hearth, and a room used as a bedroom for Dominic upon his return from Valdocco, where he died nine days later.

The environment was essential: the kitchen was also used for heating during the winter, when the family often took refuge in a neighbor's stable. To access the upper floor, an external wooden staircase, now disappeared, was used, leading to the workshop of Dominic's father, Carlo Savio, a blacksmith by trade. The workshop, equipped with a forge and an anvil, was flanked by the family's bedrooms: one for the parents and younger children, another for the other children.

The house was rented from the Bertello brothers and was the scene of many sorrowful events: in addition to Dominic, his sister Maria at 11, Luigia at 15 months, Guglielmo at 12, and his mother in 1871 died there. After these losses and the father's move to Turin in 1879, Giovanni, the last remaining child, moved in with his uncles.

After the Savio family left, the house passed through various tenants until 1917, when it was purchased by the Salesians to preserve its memory.