Before Casale, the capital of Monferrato was here: between the twelfth century and the fourteenth the marquises kept court at Chivasso, giving it a castle and even a mint authorised to strike gold and silver coin. Under Theodore II Palaiologos the town became a destination for painters, poets and philosophers from all over Piedmont, a patronage that led to the building of the cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, its facade still crowded today with terracotta statues; and in those very years one of the first Piedmontese printing houses, that of Jacobino Suigo, opened shop here. In 1431 the court moved to Casale and the town passed to the House of Savoy, remaining nonetheless one of the most important centres of the Canavese.
In 1705 the cannons of the Sun King, during the siege of the War of the Spanish Succession, knocked down the spire of the cathedral bell tower, the town's symbol; for that resistance, in 1759, Chivasso was granted the title of city, added to the one it already held of countess of Castelrosso, Torassi, Berre and Margherita. In the eighteen-nineties it was the first town in Piedmont to organise compulsory smallpox vaccination. In 1911 the Scacchi workshops began producing cars under the Caesar brand; taken over in 1915 by the Turin firm Diatto, they built French Gnome et Rhône aircraft engines under licence until 1919, a chapter of industrial history the town had never told before.
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📅 Every year, on 27 August; the Nocciolini Festival is held in September
Chivasso celebrates Blessed Angelo Carletti on 27 August; every September the town hosts the traditional Nocciolini Festival, dedicated to the local sweet, with an entire weekend of food, dining and good drink.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Chivasso, but an easy day trip away.
