OPENING TIME OF HISTORICAL PLACES

CASTLE PARK

Winter time (01/10 - 30/5): All days - 10.00 - 17.30

Summer time (01/6 - 30/9):All days - 10.00 -22.00

CHURCH OF "S.GIOVANNI AI CAMPI"

by appointment phone 011.9657083 -011.9657846

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.

Piobesi - Plebean Church of S. Giovanni

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

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 .

Piobesi - Castle

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.

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.

TETTI CAVALLONI

This is a suburb of Piobesi and an example of rural settlement in the southern plain of the Turinese area.and quite possibly one of the early settlings of the ancient Publice.

Besides the residential nucleus, there is a chapel dedicated to SS. Trinità that goes back to XVIIIth Century and was built by the local people.

The altar-piece is by the painter Agostino Cottolengo of Bra, Benedetto’s brother, founder of the "Piccola Casa della Divina Provvidenza” (little house of the Divine Providence).

In the residential area there are two outside ovens for baking bread going back to the XVIIIth Century, one of which is still operating now. Teresa Petronilla Comoglio who, together with her sister Giuseppina, is responsible for “L’adorazione quotidiana perpetua” (Daily Perpetual Adoration) was born in Tetti Cavalloni in 1841; the process for their beatification is in progress at present.

The built-up area was once surrounded by thick woods, rich in game, and hunting ground for King Victor Emmanuel II.

Civic Tower, Bell-Tower, Houses and elegant XVth Century Palaces

These buildings date back to the foundation of the new town of Piobesi created by the Turin bishop Ludovico da Romagnano between 1458 and 1461.

The terra-cotta medallions in the palace are similar to those of the Della Rovere Castle in Vinovo.

Of the Church of S. Maria, dating back to 1461, only two cross-valted bay survive.

These are now incorporated into the new building dating from 1892.

City-Hall (ex- Palazzo Aymini)

Example of a XIXth Century bourgeois residence.

Civic Tower, Bell-Tower, Houses and elegant XVth Century Palaces

In 1876 the clog-makers established a company, to which Piobesi families devoting themselves to the manufacturing of the stumps for the clogs joined, using most of all willow wood. Once these trees of low trunk were very widespread to construct baskets or to cover the demijohns.

The stumps were produced on large scale, then sold in Turin, Moncalieri, Rivoli and in other minor centres in the outskirts.

Piobesi clog-makers reached a particular ability in such a work and there was a great demand for the stumps manufactured in Piobesi for the good quality and the perfect working.

They were prepared, mostly, during the spring with a summary rough-shaping work and seasoned in the open air, forming the so-called "small towers" that in spring arose numerous on the threshing-floors.

Then in autumn and in winter, when the agricultural works granted months of rest to our laborious men, they took a slim, comfortable and even aesthetically elegant form.

A good specialized clog-maker, during a working day, not surely inferior to 15 hours, could prepare about fifty pairs that yielded him the sum of 15 or 16 liras in the years preceding the war.

After having deducted the cost of the material, the daily net earnings were perhaps about 6 liras and, for that time, it was a considerable sum. In the immediate post-war the consumption of the stumps decreased gradually for various reasons, the mechanical manufacturing of these ones, that was less expensive, invaded the Piedmontese market and it was probably the reason that determined the decline of an artisan industry, that had brought effective economical welfare to numerous families of our town.

The society of the Clog-makers continued to be represented in the years by his flag, exposed on various occasions. Actually 200 sympathizing partners are enrolled, many of whom descend from the old families manufacturing the stumps.

The actual prior is Mario Meinardi, who each year for the 24th January, gathers the partners on occasion of the Mass in honour of San Francesco di Sales, patron of the journalists and in Piobesi, of the clog-makers.

After the Mass there is the lunch, attended by all the partners. In the first months of the year 2000 the Town of Piobesi Torinese, with the sponsor of the Province of Turin, organized the 1st COURSE FOR "CLOG-MAKERS", 10 practical lessons, with a clog-maker teacher, to favour the learning of the clog manufacturing practice and to keep and to develop the tradition of the clog-makers, as evidence of our artisan realities.

In 2002 the 2nd course for Clog-makers was organized to develop further on this old activity once present on our territory.

For information phone 011.9657846 - fax 011.9650978.

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