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The monumental complex of the convent of Santa Croce and all the saints was built by the will of Pope Pius V, a native of Bosco Marengo, in the year in which he was elected pope. Architects and artists of the papal court of that time took part in its realization. The distribution of the various rooms is organized around two large cloisters which overlook the museum's premises, the large refectory and, on the first floor, the library with a typical three-aisle design, separated by two rows of elegant columns. The church, a Latin cross with a dome at the crossroads of the arms, has a single nave with a barrel vault and a series of five chapels on each side, corresponding to as many altars. Despite the destruction and stripping suffered over the centuries, the complex still preserves valuable works, such as the Last Judgment and the Adoration of the Magi by Giorgio Vasari (deriving from the dismantling of the original wooden altar, replaced in 1710 by the marble one), a stupendous sixteenth-century wooden choir and the grandiose mausoleum of Pius V, which remained unused because the pontiff was buried in Rome in Santa Maria Maggiore.

Built in 1566, the convent worked until 1802, when it was suppressed by the French government and used as a shelter for the veterans of the Napoleonic wars. The friars returned after the Restoration, but in 1860 the convent was definitively closed and converted into a Reformatory, a function held until 1989. Currently the property of the property is public and the building is no longer used for worship. Subject of numerous restorations, which have not distorted the original structure, it remains one of the Piedmontese late Renaissance masterpieces.

The monumental complex of Santa Croce and all the saints today take on a particular inter-religious significance precisely because it is a symbol of the Catholic Counter-Reformation that has become a sign of the new path undertaken by the Catholic Church As the Waldensian pastor Paolo Ricca has grasped well, the fact that, for the first time in history, Pope Francis, on 31 October 2016, took part publicly in the celebration of the Reformation, was extended by Catholics and Lutherans, but not in the sense of bring them all back to the Roman fold.

The complex of Santa Croce was built under the supervision of Michele Ghisleri, enthroned in 1565 with the name of Pius V, theologian and inquisitor, animated by a iron will to underline the Roman plenitudo potestatis. In response to "Protestant heresy" the Catholic Church tended to become the norm of all ecclesial life, from liturgy to law, from history to theology. The Protestant Reformation will be condemned by Rome until the middle of the twentieth century, when, with the Second Vatican Council, new horizons and a different way of understanding relations with other religions have opened up.

Direct visit: with local guides.

Classroom activity (pre and post the visit):
Artistic itinerary through some in-depth information on the Vasari machine.
Ecumenical journey with detailed information on the "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" of 1999 and the document "From the conflict to communion" of 2013.
Activity of verification of the acquired knowledge and skills.