In 962, while Otto I was besieging the island of San Giulio, William was born inside it, son of the lord of Volpiano who was holding the place: the emperor himself stood as his godfather. He became an abbot, a musician and a builder of abbeys across half of Europe, and on his family's land he raised Fruttuaria.
The town, 14,998 residents on the edge of the Vauda plateau, first appears in a diploma of 1014, already with its castle. The French destroyed it in 1555; with those stones, in 1731, the church of the Confraternita was built, which people here still call the Gesia neuva.
The patrons are Saints Peter and Paul and the feast falls on 29 June; the church that carries their names may have begun as the castle chapel. The finest building in town, however, is another one: the church of the Confraternita, which people here call the Gesia neuva, built around 1731 to a design by the architect Antonio Maria Lampo, using stone salvaged from the walls of the destroyed castle.
It has a central, slightly oval plan that echoes the spatial experiments Juvarra was making in those same years, and above the door a pipe organ built in 1856 by Felice Bossi and his son Giacomo, which has come down to us in perfect condition. The church of San Rocco, for its part, was rebuilt in 1683 after an outbreak of plague: Saint Roch is the saint who protects against it.
chiesa dei Santi Pietro e Paolo · Castello di Volpiano
Compare hotels, B&Bs and holiday homes on Booking.com for your dates.
Next up: Saints Peter and Paul, patrons of a church perhaps born as the castle's chapel, Tuesday 29 June
Nearest airport: Torino Caselle, 11 km away
No events match these filters.
📅 Every year, on 29 June
Volpiano celebrates Saints Peter and Paul on 29 June; the parish church dedicated to them, perhaps born as the castle's chapel with lines close to Gothic, was rebuilt and restored several times, most recently in 2019.
📅 Every two years, in October
The re-enactment of the Canavese war: arms tournaments, historic procession and medieval market, every two years in October.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
