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The origin of the name Piobesi could be connected with the term given to
public lands: from the plural form Publlicae, it would become in
fact Publice, from which Piobes and then Piobesi.
Plebean Church of S. Giovanni
 Where
now one finds the Church of S. Giovanni, there was a Roman settling
going back probably to a prehistoric site. A tombstone of the imperial
period, now in the Museum of Antiquities in Turin, and an
inscription fixed on the church portal were found there. A mile stone
(now inside the church) and some large slabs indicate the presence of a
previous Roman road. The recent discovery of an apse pre-dating the
present church and the base of a font suggest that there were Christian
buildings on the site from the Vth-VIIth Century. The actual Church of
S. Giovanni is a parish church, dating back probably to the Xth
Century, was built on the foundations of the previous constructions
re-using Roman material. The building is inspired by Lombard and
transalpine models: the three apsidal aisles recall in fact the
churches of Amsoldingen (Switzerland), Aime (France), Agliate (Lombardy)
and S. Paragorio in Noli (Liguria). The church of Piobesi has no crypt.
On the vault of the central apse are the Maiestas Domini and the
Deesis, frescos that seem to reflect the artistic tendencies of
the XIth Century in Turin; at the foot of the enthroned Christ are the
twelve apostles; the painting technique recalls the Othonian pictorial
cycles. On the two side apses and on the walls frescos dating back to
XIVth-XVth Century are still visible. On the 3rd October
1359, Giovanni Pivart and his wife Guglielmina, native of Chamousset
in Savoy, ordered the
fresco
for the church portal, representing the Virgin Mary with the Child; by
her side are two angels playing musical instruments, the two people who
commissioned the fresco, and Saint John the Baptist and Saint
Christopher. In 1717, the farmers of S. Giovanni had a chapel built in
honour of the ”Holy Name of Mary “ (Santo Nome di Maria, which
contains an interesting XVth Century fresco. Until 1835, the
parish priests of Piobesi received church investiture at the Church of
S. Giovanni. Only subsequently did they gain “possession” of the parish
church of the Natività di Maria Vergine (the Church of the
Nativity of the Virgin Mary).
Castle
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In the second half of the Xth Century the early medieval
curtis of Publice was formed, within the Turinese
diocese’s sphere of interest. The castle was founded by Bishop
Landolfo between 1010 |
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and 1037, but in 1347 it was destroyed by Giovanni Visconti’s
army. One of the four towers (dating back already to the XIVth
Century) is preserved. In the XIXth Century it was transformed
into a private house and for some years it was the residence of
Count Brassier of Saint-Simon, Prussian Ambassador at the Court
of Sardinia. |
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Click on the images to enlarge them |
In 1863 George
Perkins Marsh, the first American Ambassador at the Court
of Savoy, and his wife, Caroline Crane Marsh, stayed there.
They were significant
people of great culture who left a mark still evident
today. The book Man and Nature by G.P.Marsh, whose
first drafts were completed during the stay here in Piobesi,
can be considered one of the first scientific study on the
modifications of the environment by mankind. This text is
still considered today internationally to be a classic
study of the topic.
Caroline Marsh’s diary (located by professor David Lowenthal
in the States), contains many references describing their
stay in Piobesi and provides a sharp insignt into the
society of the time from the perpspective of an emancipated
and perceptive American woman. A translation of the Diary,
recently edited and translated by Dr Luisa Quartermaine, has
been published by the Allemandi publishing house in Tourin.
Since 1998 the house has been city-property. You can visit
the medieval tower, the rooms on the ground floor, the ex-chapel (
now the library ) and the
Italian
garden. |
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