Rossiglione's town hall is a converted friary, and it shows: the village's multipurpose hall used to be the church of the Friars Minor, consecrated in 1645. The land was bought jointly by the two communities of Rossiglione Superiore and Rossiglione Inferiore, and the deed of sale is dated 9 October 1530; building work, however, only began in 1621. The building stands in piazza Giacomo Matteotti, in the lower village.
What to see
Of the conventual complex, dedicated to the Assumption, recognisable traces of the Franciscan manner survive: sober proportions, unemphatic surfaces, the plain cut the Friars Minor gave their own houses. In the eighteenth century the place was enlarged, by then a religious centre of some weight for the Stura valley, and filled with furnishings all later lost: what you look at today is the shell, not what it held.
The conventual church is no longer used for worship. Turned into a multipurpose hall, it hosts village meetings, concerts and events, and it is the part of the building where the shift from friary to town hall reads most clearly: the volume stayed the same, the use changed completely.
Visiting
Piazza Giacomo Matteotti is the centre of Rossiglione Inferiore, on the road that climbs the valley towards the Turchino pass. Rossiglione is made of two historic villages, Superiore and Inferiore, and the town hall is in the second one: worth knowing, so you do not look for it at the wrong end of town. The offices keep ordinary counter hours, while the hall opens for events.
Our editors' tip
We like lining up the dates in front of the doorway. In 1805 Napoleon's suppression of the religious orders sent the Franciscans away, and the two villages, only just merged into a single municipality, made the former friary their administrative seat; in 1818 a royal decree by Victor Emmanuel I of Savoy, king of Sardinia, brought them back; in 1855 the Siccardi Laws removed them a second time; in 1866 the council moved in for good. Six decades of Italian history passing through a single door, and it is worth asking at the council office whether anything is scheduled in the hall: that is the only way to see the old church from inside.