Villastellone

The name comes from a small Cistercian church devoted to Saint Martin: in 1203 Chieri bought those lands of Sancti Martini, and when the Villa counts built a walled residence there late in the fourteenth century the place became Villa Sancti Martini, then simply Villa. Stellone, added later, is the stream that runs past.

In 1670 the French army of general Catinat laid siege to the town. People hid their valuables and the communal land register in the tower; the French, unable to get in, mined it and blew it up, leaving the castle half destroyed. They also took the great clock of the bell tower, gears and all, back to France.