Pinerolo is a town of 36,000 people (2015) in Piedmont on the river Chisone.

Understand

The oldest part of the town stands on the slopes of the hill of San Maurizio, where the remains of the Citadel (445 m) are located, while to the south and east, on the plain, the modern residential and industrial districts have developed, up to the course of the Lemina and beyond. Even today it is possible to identify the layout of the walls , of ancient origin and reinforced several times until the intervention of Vauban in 1670 .

History

Pinerolo was first mentioned an imperial diplom dating from 981, by which Otto II confirmed its possession, within the March of Turin, to the Bishops of Turin. The town of Pinerolo was one of the main crossroads in Italy, and was therefore one of the principal fortresses of the dukes of Savoy. The fortress of Fenestrelle is nearby.

France controlled Pinerolo from 1536 to 1574, and again from 1631 to 1696.

Get in

It is 40 km southwest of Turin.

The Turin-Pinerolo railway line has th Pinerolo station and the Pinerolo Olimpica stop.

Pinerolo is connected to Turin by a motorway, the A55 or Pinerolese motorway, and by the provincial road 23 of Colle del Sestriere and the state road 589 of the Avigliana Lakes, which, passing alongside Pinerolo, continues to Cuneo.

See

Pinerolo Cathedral

• 1 Pinerolo Cathedral (Duomo di Pinerolo, Cathedral of St. Donatus). A 9th-century Roman Catholic church with a Romanesque bell tower and a Gothic façade (restored after the 1808 earthquake). Inside, it preserves Gothic holy water stoups and the choir, a pulpit and a wooden lectern, carved in the 17th century. The bell tower, dating back to 1425, was a Civic Tower in the Middle Ages; it remained unfinished. (updated Nov 2024)
• Galup factory, which is famous for the local sweets and cake
• Historic Museum of Mutual Help (Museo Storico del Mutuo Soccorso). The first society of mutual help was founded in Pinerolo in 1848. Today, it is still active and also hosts a museum, with historic archives and a library. (updated Nov 2024)

Historical Museum of the Cavalry

• 2 Historical Museum of the Cavalry (Museo storico dell'Arma di cavalleria), Principe Amedeo barracks, Viale Giovanni Giolitti, 5. Tu-Th 09:00-12:00, 13:30-16:30; Sa Su 10:00-12:00, 14:00-18:00. One of the most important museums in Europe dedicated to the cavalry. (updated Nov 2024)
• Piazza Vittorio Veneto (better known as "Piazza Fontana"): is the central meeting point of the Pinerolo people; designed in 1738, it was built by levelling the ditches in front of the seventeenth-century walls. This vast area was the town's parade ground until 1830, one of the largest in Italy; today it is home to the weekly markets (Wednesday and Saturday). Inside there is a fountain with a single-block basin in Malanaggio stone and the marble statue dedicated to General Filippo Brignone (1879).
• Palazzo del Comune: overlooking the north side of Piazza Vittorio Veneto. It was built as the arsenal of the city fortress. During the years of fascism its façade was renovated and the civic tower was built.
• The Alliaudi Municipal Library has over 100,000 volumes, manuscripts , incunabula and a precious collection of rare books.
• Palazzo Vittone: it is located on the east side of the same square. It was commissioned by King Carlo Emanuele III of Savoy to house the Hospice of the Catechumens. Today it is home to important museums and cultural institutions.
• Construction of the New Bishop's Seminary began in 1896 in an area to the north of the Palazzo di Città. It houses the Civic Museum (Bodoni relics, weapons, coins, 19th-century paintings from the local school).
• There are many medieval houses, including the "Palazzo dei Principi d'Acaia" or Castel Nuovo, built in 1318 and later modified; the fifteenth-century "Casa del Senato" ; the "Casa del Vicario", a sixteenth-century terracotta construction.
• The Basilica of San Maurizio, already mentioned in 1078, was rebuilt in 1470 and restored in 1897.
• The sanctuary of the Madonna delle Grazie, adjacent to the rear part of the basilica and facing in the opposite direction, dates back to the 16th century and stands in a panoramic position.
• The church of San Domenico, dating back to 1438, and partly preserved with the contemporary bell tower, has remains of 15th-century frescoes.
• Some baroque churches are:
  • Church of San Rocco , with a single nave and an elliptical presbytery, built in 1744 by Giuseppe Gerolamo Buniva and whose sacristy is attributed to Bernardo Antonio Vittone,
  • Church of San Giuseppe, now deconsecrated and used as a concert hall named after Italo Tajo , but previously the site of a Jesuit monastery.
• The Teatro Sociale (1842), destroyed by a fire in 1972 and reopened in 2008, and the Tempio Valdese (1855-60), built after the emancipation edict of Carlo Alberto, date back to the 19th century.
• The remains of the thirteenth-century walls that surrounded the upper village, still visible along the top of Via Ortensia di Piossasco and part of the walls of the seventeenth-century citadel, commissioned by King Louis XIII, hidden in the woods of the San Maurizio hill.

Nearby

• 3 Museum of Mechanics and Bearings (Museo della Meccanica e del Cuscinetto), Via Nazionale, 24 - Villar Perosa, ☏ +39 3356324120. Su 09:00-12:00, or by reservation. Formerly an SKF bearing factory, the Museum of Mechanics and Bearings is now a museum dedicated to the manufacture of bearings in Italy. Tours are offered of the former factory. (updated Nov 2024)

Fenestrelle Fort

• 4 Fenestrelle Fort (Forte di Fenestrelle), Fenestrelle village, ☏ +39 121 83600. It is the biggest alpine fortification in Europe, having a surface area of 1,300,000 m². The fortress, built by Savoy between 1728 and 1850 guards the access to Turin via the Chisone valley and stands at altitudes between 1,100 and 1,800 m. By guided tour only (1, 3 or 7 hours), €10-20 per adult, minimum 10 people. (updated Nov 2024)

Do

Every other year, in October, the historical re-enactment of the Iron Mask takes place in Pinerolo , one of the city's major events. Legend has it that the mysterious historical figure resided in the citadel of Pinerolo; on the hill of San Maurizio there is a small monument dedicated to this legend.