This is a simple church, and there is only one reason to go in: the statue of the Madonna and Child it holds, a work of 1705 by Carlo Giuseppe Plura. It is not a name you meet often outside Piedmont, but Plura was one of the most sought-after sculptors of early eighteenth-century Savoy Turin, and this is a work of his, in a village on the plain.
What to see
The statue stands in a church that does not compete with the parish church of San Michele, which at Druento sits on top of the hill, behind the castle, and hosts the most important celebrations. Santa Maria della Stella is one of the village's minor churches, together with that of San Sebastiano in the old centre.
The village was called Druent until the nineteen-thirties, and in Piedmontese it still is: it is a superlative of the adjective dru, and means most fertile. A name that says everything about the plain it stands on, between the Ceronda stream and the first ring of Turin's outskirts.
Visiting
The church is at Druento, half an hour from Turin; it is a subsidiary church, so it opens for services and on particular occasions, and it is worth asking beforehand. A quarter of an hour.
Our editors' tip
Take half a day as well for the park of La Mandria, which Druento shares with the neighbouring municipalities: it was the Savoy hunting estate, it is one of the largest walled parks in Europe and you go in on foot or by bicycle. Between a baroque statue and a royal wood, the second will keep you longer.