Palace Saint Chiara

Last update 16 February 2023

In the eighteenth century, Father Antonio Falletti di Barolo ordered the construction of the Clarisses’ convent. Unfortunately, the building became too expensive and remained unfinished. The façade of the present building is, in fact, a branch of the unfinished cloister. It is decorated by a sundial, which was renovated in 1999 by Mario Tebenghi.

The theater on the ground floor was previously a chapel. It was transformed in 1864 by Fausto Gozzano, an engineer and amateur actor father of Guido, the famous poet. The Council Hall in front of the theater is decorated with frescos dating from Umberto I

On the first floor there are five paintings by Demetrio Cosola, master painter in the late 1800s in Piedmont: two oil portraits of his parents (1875), one male nude, the portrait of the physicist Giuseppe Basso, and “The Vaccination in Piedmont,” a pastel representing the smallpox vaccination of children, which became compulsory in Chivasso before than in any other major towns in Piedmont. This pastel is located in the Mayor’s office, which also hosts two drawings of the town of Chivasso dating from the second half of the eighteenth century. In the hallway of the west branch, several paintings of contemporary artists from Chivasso are exhibited.