What to See in Moncalieri: Attractions & Sights

More places of interest

Castello di Revigliasco

Revigliasco, a hill frazione of Moncalieri, was an independent comune until 1928 and has had two castles. The old castle, of medieval origin, no longer exists; the eighteenth-century one stands in via Beria, named after the last counts who owned it.
What to see
The old castle was built from the eleventh century at the wish of the Lords of Asti, during the feudal struggles with Moncalieri and Turin. The place name is first cited in a document of 6 March 1163, in which Frederick Barbarossa enfeoffed the territory to the Marquises of Romagnano. The struggles with Asti ended in the thirteenth century and from the fourteenth the castle passed to the Roero nobles, later called San Severino; from 1531, at the wish of Charles V of Habsburg, the village passed directly to the Savoys. The oldest castle fell into ruin and was later demolished to build the Massimo d'Azeglio school complex.
The eighteenth-century castle, formerly owned by the Beria d'Argentine, was bought by the Comune in 1950 and, according to the sources consulted, which do not date the information, is in disrepair. In the same street, at the corner with via delle Ghiacciaie, at the top of an imposing flight of steps, stands the parish church of San Martino Vescovo, regarded as the religious building symbolising the centre of the village: it was built between 1612 and 1620 in place of an earlier small church, in Florentine Baroque style, and holds among other things a sixteenth-century canvas of the Holy Virgins.
Visiting
The castle is in via Beria, in Revigliasco. The sources consulted do not say whether it can be visited and report it as run-down: before going, check the situation.
Our editors' tip
In the centre of the village, not far from the parish church, stands the church of Santa Croce, also called that of the Battuti or Disciplinati, built by the confraternity in 1608 in Baroque style.
Chiesa parrocchiale di Santa Maria di Testona

The parish church of Santa Maria di Testona, also called Santa Maria delle Grazie, stands in the Testona district of Moncalieri and is recorded as early as the eleventh century, founded at the wish of the bishop of Turin, Landolfo. The historical tradition of Testona is still remembered today in the district festival in mid-September, which commemorates Santa Maria delle Grazie, on 8 September, and the arrival of the relics of Saint Victoria of Rome, on 12 September 1843.
What to see
The Romanesque style survives in the structure, in the fine crypt, in the bell tower and in the side elevations, while the rest was remodelled in the Baroque style in 1617 and, for the facade alone, in 1734; recent studies link the facade to the names of Giovanni Antonio Sevalle and Vincenzo Maria Ferrero, Piedmontese engineers and architects. In 1617 the adjoining monastery was also built, assigned first to the Cistercian Feuillants and then to the Capuchin friars. The interior has three naves and a central underground crypt, of early origin, beneath the high altar, which is raised and reached by two long side staircases.
In 1841 the crypt was remodelled to venerate the statue of the Madonna delle Grazie and to house the relics of Saint Victoria of Rome, a martyr of the third century, which arrived here in 1843; a reproduction of her body is in the right-hand nave. The interior is decorated with paintings by Vittorio Amedeo Rapous, Giuseppe Paladino, Francesco Antonio Mayerle and Orsola Caccia, daughter of Moncalvo. Between the late nineties and the early two-thousands, excavations by the churchyard and elsewhere in the district brought to light burials and an early medieval settlement, with traces of an earlier Roman phase, as well as a well-preserved early medieval drainage system, which must have served to check the constant rising of groundwater; the investigations also showed the presence of people of Lombard culture at Testona.
Visiting
The church is in the Testona district, in Moncalieri. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them.
Our editors' tip
A little way off, on the hill near strada San Michele, stands the Castelvecchio, a castle with clearly medieval features built in 1037 at the wish of the same bishop Landolfo: it was a bishop's residence and then a Savoy one and is today a private home.