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Pinerolo

City in the Turin metropolitan area at the mouth of the Chisone valley: capital of the Acaia, a French fortress town of Fouquet and the man in the iron mask, and cradle of the cavalry.

Image from the publication of Città di Pinerolo - Visita Pinerolo
From a publication by Città di Pinerolo - Visita Pinerolo

Pinerolo is a municipality in Piedmont, in the Metropolitan City of Turin. It stands at 376 metres above sea level at the foot of the first pre-Alpine ridges, along the Lemina stream, and in 2008 had 35,143 inhabitants over just over 50 square kilometres.[1] A gateway to the Chisone valley and to the Waldensian valleys, it was the capital of the Piedmontese domains of a branch of the House of Savoy, a French stronghold for more than a century, a state prison under Louis XIV, and, between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, home to the army's Cavalry School.

From the abbey to the Acaia

The name appears for the first time in a diploma of Emperor Otto II attributed to 981, although it is thought the name may have been inserted there later, when Frederick Barbarossa confirmed the document in 1159.[2] Countess Adelaide, after founding the Pinerolo abbey of Santa Maria in 1064, donated the locality to it in 1078; Savoy rule was re-established by Thomas I in 1220.[2] From 1295 to 1418 Pinerolo was the capital of the Piedmontese possessions of the princes of Acaia, a cadet branch of the Savoys.[1]

From that era date the main monuments of the upper part of the town. The Palazzo degli Acaia was built in 1318 by Philip of Acaia; the church of San Maurizio, documented from 1078, was rebuilt around 1470 in late Gothic forms and preserves a bell tower of 1326-1336; the Palazzo del Senato, in brick, dates from the fifteenth century. The cathedral of San Donato, founded in 1044, shows Gothic forms.[2][3] Around 1479 the printer Jacques Le Rouge brought printing to Pinerolo and published classical texts there, including Boethius's De consolatione.[2]

The French stronghold and the king's prisoners

Because of its position along the alpine routes, Pinerolo changed hands more than once. It was occupied by the French from 1536 to 1574; it returned to France under the Treaty of Cherasco of 1631 and was reconquered by the Savoys only in 1706, during the War of the Spanish Succession; it was French again from 1798 to 1814.[1] The town's tourist website recalls it as a «French town for 120 years», with an imposing fortified citadel used as a state prison.[3]

Its most illustrious prisoner was Nicolas Fouquet, superintendent of finances of France, arrested in 1661 and sentenced to life imprisonment after the charges of embezzlement brought by Colbert: he was transferred to the castle of Pinerolo in 1665 and remained there until his death in 1680.[4] Pinerolo also held the prisoner known as the «man in the iron mask». His gaoler was always the governor Saint-Mars, who took him from Pinerolo to the island of Sainte-Marguerite and finally, on 18 September 1698, to the Bastille in Paris, where the man died on 19 November 1703.[5] The Enciclopedia Italiana notes that the mask «was in fact not of iron but of black velvet, with iron springs that kept it closed».[5]

Guesses about the prisoner's identity began to pile up from Voltaire, who made the mystery public in 1738. The two most widely held theories made him a hidden twin brother of Louis XIV, or the Mantuan count Ercole Antonio Mattioli, a diplomat arrested in May 1679 for betraying state secrets; Fouquet himself has also been proposed among the candidates.[5]

The diocese and the Waldensian valleys

The diocese of Pinerolo was established in 1748, suppressed in the Napoleonic era in 1804, and re-established in 1817. Its territory includes the valleys where many Protestants, mostly Waldensians, live.[1] Pinerolo has for centuries been the market town for these valleys: already in the 1930s it was described as an active commercial centre, with well-attended markets and fairs, serving the agriculture, forests, mines and textile and engineering industries of the Chisone valley,[2] which, climbing upward, leads to the Fort of Fenestrelle and to Sestriere.

The cradle of the cavalry

From 1849 to 1943 the town housed the Cavalry School of the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia and later of the Kingdom of Italy, in the Principe Amedeo barracks.[6] It was here that Federico Caprilli trained and later taught: after his commission as an officer he attended the regular course there, and he returned in 1904 to direct the courses for instructor officers and from 1905 that for second lieutenants.[7] His «natural system» overturned traditional riding, which forced the horse into unnatural movements: the rider was to keep the torso inclined forward and the hands still and low.[7] At the international equestrian competition in Turin in 1902 Caprilli cleared, outside the competition, 2.08 metres in height, a world record; he died in Turin on 6 December 1907 after a fall from a horse.[7] For this tradition Pinerolo is remembered as the «cradle of the Cavalry».[3]

On 20 June 1958 the association that was to create a national museum of the corps was formed, and the Municipality granted it a wing of the former Fenulli barracks: the Historical Museum of the Cavalry Corps was inaugurated on 13 October 1968. It occupies 5,500 square metres with 240 display cases, and its collections have grown thanks to more than nine hundred donors.[6]

Coppi's arrival in 1949

In cycling, the town's name is linked to 10 June 1949, the seventeenth stage of the Giro d'Italia, from Cuneo to Pinerolo: 254 kilometres over the Maddalena, the Vars, the Izoard, the Montgenèvre and the Sestriere. Fausto Coppi attacked on the first climb, 192 kilometres from the finish, and arrived alone after a little more than nine hours, with about twelve minutes' lead over Gino Bartali.[8] Mario Ferretti's radio commentary described it thus:[8]

«A man alone at the front, his jersey is white and sky-blue, his name is Fausto Coppi.»

Mario Ferretti, radio commentary on the Giro d'Italia, 10 June 1949

The city today

Pinerolo remains the de facto capital of the Pinerolese, with weekly markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays and a music academy attended by more than five hundred students from all over the world.[3] The medieval centre along via Principi d'Acaja, with the Palazzo del Senato and the Palazzo degli Acaia, is the main route for visitors to the town, together with the basilica of San Maurizio and the cavalry museum.[3]

Removal and return of the banner «The school is open to all» (September 2026)

On 28 September 2026 the authorities remove, from the Istituto Comprensivo Pinerolo 3-4, a banner reading «The school is open to all». The banner is returned after a complaint from the Flc Cgil union.

The 2026 Participatory Budget: voting until 5 October

From September 2026 Pinerolo votes until 5 October on the 2026 Participatory Budget, which allocates 100,000 euros to the most-voted project among three finalists.

The 2026 Participatory Budget (September-October 2026)

Timeline

  • — Leonardo brings helicopter component production back to Piedmont, entrusting Apr of Pinerolo with fuel pumps, Mecaer of Borgomanero with air-conditioning and pressurization systems, and Tubiflex of Turin with pumps for hydraulic systems. → La Stampa
  • — The gathering of the 1st Alpini Grouping in Pinerolo concludes with a final parade that draws about 15,000 Alpini troops to the town. → La Stampa TorinoOggi
  • — The Democratic Party chooses Francesca Costarelli as the broad coalition's candidate for mayor in Pinerolo's 2027 municipal elections. → Eco del Chisone TorinoOggi
  • — A 38-year-old woman who had long lived in Pinerolo dies in a crash between two cars and a heavy goods vehicle on the SS589 state road at Saluzzo. → TorinoOggi Quotidiano Piemontese
  • — The authorities remove in Pinerolo a banner reading «The school is open to all» from the Istituto Comprensivo Pinerolo 3-4, later returned after a complaint from the Flc Cgil union. → ANSA Piemonte TorinoToday
  • — In Pinerolo voting runs until 5 October for the 2026 Participatory Budget, which allocates 100,000 euros to the most-voted project among three finalists. → CronacaQui Torino TorinoOggi
  • — In Pinerolo the written reasons are filed for the first-instance conviction of former parish priest don Paolo Bianciotto, found guilty of misappropriating large sums given by the faithful for charitable works, including about 800,000 euros from the sale of a hotel. → TorinoToday CronacaQui Torino
  • — Ahead of Pinerolo's 2027 municipal elections, Italia Viva also leaves the broad coalition and lines up with Azione, Ora! and Mre in support of Elvio Rostagno's candidacy for mayor. → TorinoOggi Eco del Chisone
  • — A fault in the signalling system between None and Candiolo causes train cancellations and disruption for commuters on the SFM2 Pinerolo-Turin line. → CronacaQui Torino TorinoOggi
  • — In Pinerolo, the historical re-enactment of the Iron Mask returns for its 22nd edition, with more than 500 performers bringing the historic centre back to the seventeenth century over the weekend of 3 and 4 October; on the same days the photographic exhibition «The Art of Photography – 200 Years» stays open specially at the Centro di Interpretazione del Territorio Pinerolese. → Città metropolitana di Torino TorinoOggi
  • — The Istituto Maria Immacolata of Pinerolo, founded by the Sisters of St Joseph, celebrates on Saturday 3 October the ninetieth anniversary of opening its doors to its first pupils, which took place on the same day in 1936. TorinoOggi Eco del Chisone
  • — An act of vandalism damages the main building of the Istituto alberghiero Arturo Prever in Pinerolo, emptying fire extinguishers in classrooms and corridors and forcing the school to close. → TorinoOggi Eco del Chisone
  • — The Guardia di Finanza of Pinerolo stops near the station a couple in their twenties found in possession of more than two hundred grams of hashish and marijuana, reported to the Turin Prosecutor's Office for drug possession for the purpose of dealing. → TorinoOggi Eco del Chisone

Related articles: 2026 Participatory Budget of Pinerolo, Cgil Torino, Cuneo, Fausto Coppi, Flc Cgil, Removal of the banner at IC Pinerolo 3-4

Pages that link here

Sources

  1. Treccani
  2. Treccani - Enciclopedia Italiana —
  3. Città di Pinerolo - Visita Pinerolo
  4. Treccani
  5. Treccani - Enciclopedia Italiana —
  6. Museo Storico dell'Arma di Cavalleria
  7. Treccani - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
  8. Il Post — 10 June 2019
  9. ANSA Piemonte — 28 September 2026
  10. TorinoToday — 28 September 2026
  11. CronacaQui Torino — 28 September 2026
  12. TorinoOggi — 28 September 2026

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