The first church of Pino was the chapel of San Giorgio, named in a bull of pope Innocent II of 1141. In the fifteenth century the little church of Santa Maria was built for the Carmelites who came from Moncalieri, and their convent was sanctioned in 1521 by a bull of Leo X; the church became a parish the year after the apostolic visit of 1584.
What to see
The facade faces south-east and is preceded by a portico of heavy pillars with paired pilasters carrying five round arches; above runs a floor with rooms that are not part of the church, and higher still a small trefoil window under a curved crowning. The bell tower, on a square base, has corner pilasters, a single-light window on each side of the belfry and a four-pitched roof.
Visiting
Inside there is a single nave onto which eight side chapels open; the walls are marked by pilasters with Ionic capitals carrying the entablature, above which the barrel vault rests. The presbytery, raised three steps, is covered by an elliptical vault and closed by a three-sided apse. Among the works are a fifteenth-century statue of the Virgin, an altarpiece signed by Giancarlo Aliberti and a canvas of 1690 attributed to the school of Giovanni Claret.
Our editors' tip
In 1642 the people of Pino decided to build themselves a new parish church and commissioned a grand design from Francesco Peghino and Salvatore Bianco, which was never carried out: what you visit instead is the eighteenth-century rebuilding, consecrated in 1777. The vault was dealt with much later by Gabriele Ferrero of Chieri, during the alterations of 1880.