Rivarolo Canavese, Italy (Piedmont): What to See, Eat & Stay

The church of San Michele Arcangelo, of 1759, has an octagonal plan and a dome in eight segments: it is considered one of the masterpieces of Bernardo Antonio Vittone. On the left-hand altar stands a late Gothic wooden statue that nobody bought or commissioned: it was fished out of the Orco during a flood.

Rivarolo has 12,356 residents at 304 metres, on the right bank of the stream. Malgrà castle was built between 1333 and 1336 by count Martino di San Martino, and restored in the nineteenth century by Alfredo d'Andrade; the name Canavese was added by a royal decree of 1862, to avoid confusion with the other Rivarolos.

Fun facts about Rivarolo Canavese

The patron is Saint James the Greater and his feast falls on 25 July. The parish church that bears his name turned two hundred and fifty years from its dedication in 2025, and in the same year the Compagnia di San Giacomo marked its hundred and fiftieth and the Filarmonica Rivarolese its hundred and fortieth: three anniversaries at once, which say how far confraternities and the town band are still living institutions here.

One of them is worth the trip: the confraternity of Sant'Eligio, named after the patron saint of blacksmiths, which looks after the old Ceco Tasso forge and opens it again on feast days. Rivarolo did work iron for a long time, and during the patronal feast the courtyard of Malgrà castle still hosts forging sessions in which smiths build a sculpture in front of the public.