What to see · Settimo Torinese

More places of interest

• Parrocchia di San Pietro in Vincoli

  The church of San Pietro in Vincoli is the parish church of Settimo Torinese, in the archdiocese of Turin. A church dedicated to Saint Peter is first mentioned in 1146, while the pieve of Santa Maria appears in 1173. The little church of San Pietro in Vincoli became the parish church in the seventeenth century; in 1810 it was enlarged with the choir and presbytery, and six years later the foundations were strengthened. In 1897 the façade was altered and the bell tower raised.

  What to see

  The stepped façade, facing north, is divided into two tiers by cornices and pilasters: below are the three portals, the main one sheltered by a porch on two Tuscan columns, and above, between two volutes, a large fresco of a sacred scene. The square bell tower has a belfry with a single-light window on each side and a pyramidal spire.

  The interior is a Latin cross, with three naves divided by arches on piers with Ionic pilasters and four chapels on each side; the central nave has five bays with cross vaults frescoed with saints, and the aisles have sail vaults entirely painted. Over the crossing, a sail vault is painted in trompe-l'œil as a coffered dome, with a central stained-glass window of the Almighty and the evangelists in the pendentives. In the presbytery, behind the painted wooden altar, stands the old polychrome marble altar with a large crucifix, and in the apse, above the wooden choir stalls, a large fresco of Saint Peter in Chains.

  Visiting

  Opening and service times should be checked with the parish.

  Our editors' tip

  Look at the floor of the presbytery, in terrazzo, laid in 1892.

• Torre di Settimo

  The tower of Settimo is the last remnant of the vanished castle of Settimo Torinese. Castle and tower were probably built between the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, on the site of an older fort known only from documents. The defensive complex was large: besides the castle it included the village, enclosed by fortifications and ditches whose line is still followed by via Antonino, via Roosevelt, via Mazzini, via Astegiano and via Matteotti, and the ricetto, where the inhabitants took refuge with their goods.

  What to see

  Over the centuries the fortified village guarded the last stretch of the road of the Duchy of Savoy which, leaving Turin through the Porta Palatina, passed through Settimo on its way to Milan, the «public road of pilgrims and merchants». In the second half of the nineteenth century the tower became the home of a wealthy Turin family: an Art Nouveau palazzo was built to the west and the site of the destroyed castle was turned into a garden; the property was called «Villa Calma».

  In 1912 the municipality bought the whole site and in 1922-1923 built the new school there, which became the town hall in 1983; raising the building destroyed some of the tower's machicolations. In 1975 and 1976, on the initiative of the Pro Loco and the Consorteria dei Gamberai, the painter Giulio Boccaccio decorated the walls and ceiling of a whole floor with scenes from the history of Settimo told in a popular vein.

  Visiting

  The restoration by the architect Donatella D'Angelo, completed in 2003, recovered the tower and the small palazzo beside it: today it hosts weddings, conferences and exhibitions. Openings and times should be checked with the municipality.

  Our editors' tip

  Since 2022 a stylised outline of the tower has appeared on the kit of the Baseball Club Settimo, which plays in the Italian Serie A.

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