Chiesetta di San Ferreolo

The chiesetta di San Ferreolo is an 11th–12th-century Romanesque building in the municipality of Grosso, in Canavese, recently promoted through a tourism project.

The chiesetta di San Ferreolo is a Romanesque religious building standing in open countryside in the municipality of Grosso, in Canavese, and belongs to the local community. It was probably built between the late 11th and early 12th century; it has a single nave with a gabled façade, an east-facing apse, and walls of cobblestones from the nearby Banna stream laid in a herringbone pattern together with small bricks, with hanging arches along the perimeter in the Romanesque style.¹

It is dedicated to Saint Ferreolus, a 3rd-century evangelist of the Franche-Comté (present-day Burgundy) martyred in 212, little known today: in Piedmont it is the only church named after him. The chapel already appears in 1386 among the buildings required to pay the "cathedraticum" contribution to Turin cathedral, and comparisons with other churches in the area suggest a Benedictine origin.¹

Inside, two fresco cycles from different periods survive; the apse depicts an enthroned Christ Pantocrator within a mandorla, surrounded by the symbols of the four Evangelists, with the Virgin and Saint John at the sides and the twelve Apostles in the band below.¹

In September 2026 the municipality of Grosso launched, with a contribution from the Città metropolitana di Torino under its scheme for promoting the territory of municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, a project to raise the chapel's profile.²

Sources

1. TorinoOggi — 22 September 2026
2. Città metropolitana di Torino — 22 September 2026