The church of San Cassiano is the main parish church of Grugliasco, in the archdiocese of Turin. From the beginning of the ninth century the territory was already a possession of the chapter of canons of Turin cathedral, but the first explicit record of the old parish church of San Cassiano bears the date 1 May 1047. Work on the new parish church began in 1647, with craftsmen from Lugano; the consecration came in 1777, from Archbishop Francesco Luserna Rorengo di Rorà on a pastoral visit. Between 1779 and 1780 the church was enlarged to a design by the architect Mario Ludovico Quarini of Chieri, but the project was not carried through in full.
What to see
The façade, left unfinished, was built in 1848 in Gothic style and then entirely remodelled in 1880 to a design by Giovanni Battista Ferrante, the year in which the sacristy was also built. It faces north-west and is crowned by a triangular pediment: in the centre are the doorway and a lunette with a fresco, within a broad round arch carried by two pairs of pilasters with composite capitals; at the sides, set back, are two smaller wings.
The interior is a Latin cross with a transept, with a nave and two aisles separated by piers with round arches, under a barrel vault; the presbytery, raised by a few steps, is closed by a semicircular apse. A wooden crucifix and various canvases of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are kept here. The presbytery was altered in 2012, with the removal of the balustrade and the relaying of the floor.
Visiting
Opening and Mass times should be checked with the parish.
Our editors' tip
The bell tower is not attached to the church: it stands some fifteen metres away, has a square plan and is the adaptation of a medieval tower. It is the civic tower of piazza San Cassiano, regarded as the symbol of Grugliasco: built in the fifteenth century for defence, it became a Chappe telegraph after Napoleon's passage, and only later a bell tower.
