The parish church of Druento is the last of a series. The first church, built in 1263 beside the castle, was dedicated to the Corpus Domini; some thirty years later a new one was raised outside the village, and in 1674 that too was replaced by a three-nave church dedicated to Santa Maria della Stella, named after the large gilded star that stood above the high altar.
What to see
The facade is of exposed brick, crowned by a tympanum and preceded by a block covered by an attic, on which the main doorway and two windows open. There sits a mosaic of 1993 showing Saint Michael the Archangel defeating Lucifer. The front is not the original one: it was rebuilt further forward and larger so that it could house the organ.
Visiting
Inside there is a single barrel-vaulted nave. The high altar is of marble and dedicated to the Archangel Michael; the side altars are dedicated to the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the Virgin of Sorrows. Look too at the window showing Santa Maria della Stella assumed into heaven, flanked by Saints Julian and Sebastian: it lines up, in a single image, the dedications of the churches that followed one another at Druento. Between 1993 and 1996 some worn windows were replaced.
Our editors' tip
The story to keep in mind is the building site. In 1703 count Giacinto Ottavio Provana funded the construction of the new church, but the works stopped during the siege of Turin, in the war against France, and the building was only completed in 1709. Consecration took another sixty years, until 7 February 1773. In the meantime the role of parish church was played by the chapel of San Sebastiano, built in the village in 1557 because it was more convenient.