Pavarolo, with around 1100 inhabitants, is 22 km from Turin.
Lacking historical records of its foundation, it’s assumed that the first settlements were post-Roman. The town’s origin likely ties to the construction of the castle, around which the first houses gathered, or to the appearance of a communication road through the valley between Asti and Chivasso.
The first mention of Pavarolo dates back to 1047, when Henry III confirmed many territories of the Chieri area to the Turin canons of St. Salvatore; it subsequently passed to the Marquises of Monferrato and then to the Municipality of Chieri, whose fate it followed. In recent times, it was the residence and workplace of Felice Casorati (1883-1963), one of the most famous painters of the twentieth century.
Places of Interest
The Castle, of medieval origin, is the true symbol of the village. It was probably around the ancestor of this structure that the first inhabitants of the settlement, now called Pavarolo, gathered. Mentioned in a document in 1047, the castle is the oldest construction in the village, with nearly ten centuries of history: remodeled over the centuries, it evolved from a military outpost to a noble and then a private residence. Located on the top of the hill where Pavarolo is situated, it has a rectangular plan, is built entirely of brick, and is surrounded by a park and supporting walls, likely remnants of the ancient defensive wall. Renovated in the 15th and 16th centuries, it houses a valuable coffered ceiling rich in polychrome decorations from the 1300s, featuring figures alternating with coats of arms. A private building, occasionally open to the public for guided tours, it is the historic residence of General Guglielmo Zavattaro Ardizzi di Pavarolo. At the foot of the Castle stands the ancient Tower, transformed into a bell tower in the 18th century (Via Maestra 8 – web: https://castellopavarolo.weebly.com/).
The Felice Casorati Studio Museum, “Aprire le finestre e fare entrare aria nella mia pittura“, as Felice Casorati used to say about his studio in Pavarolo, adjacent to the house that, from the early 1930s, was the summer residence of his family. Since 2016, the studio, which was an inspiration for the artist and his wife Daphne Maugham since 1931, has been open to the public by the will of the municipal administration of Pavarolo and the Casorati family (Via del Rubino 9 – website: https://casorati.net/pavarolo/).
Along Via Maestra and Via del Rubino, you can follow the Casorati itinerary, which consists of 6 crystal reproductions of works by the Casorati family, as well as numerous mosaics commemorating the historic Biennials of painting dedicated to the artist.
The Artists’ Garden. In the vicinity of the Felice Casorati Studio Museum, in a panoramic spot of great landscape value, there is this botanical path – designed by the botanical curator, an expert in historical gardens and an adoptive Pavarolo resident, Edoardo Santoro – that winds through a series of stops highlighting the main plant categories, plant associations, and the strong connection between art and nature.
Not far from the town – to the north – lies the village of San Defendente (chapel from the 1600s): leaving the town and passing the Chapel of San Sebastiano, you reach the chapel of San Grato, where you proceed to the right on a dirt road and cross a beautiful area of orchards, passing by the experimental plum cultivation field of susina Purin-a..