Campanile dell'Antica Collegiata di Santa Maria della Stella

A Gothic tower preserves a major part of Rivoli's medieval memory. Much of the surrounding complex changed, burned or was rebuilt; the campanile remains a fragment of the collegiate church consecrated in 1307. Its prominence in the old-town skyline is associated with the city's Marian devotion to Santa Maria della Stella.

Why it matters

Rivoli grew around a collegiate church founded in the early fourteenth century, and for five centuries that church anchored the town's religious and civic life. When the building was eventually replaced, only the tower survived. A municipal legend recorded on the city's official pages tells of a statuette of the Madonna and Child unearthed where a beam of light struck the ground — the miracle from which the dedication to Santa Maria della Stella is said to derive. The tower is both a physical relic and part of Rivoli's Marian identity, a story continued by the modern collegiate church.

What to notice

The masonry's solidity reflects the tower's prominence beyond the town. Near the top, the clock face conceals eighteenth-century machinery, a gift to the city from Vittorio Amedeo II. The pyramidal spire was rebuilt during the modern restoration using roughly 4,000 hand-modelled bricks, each stamped with the restoration date. From Piazza Carlo Bollani, the tower and castle form a vertical element of the borgo's skyline.

Context and history

The collegiate church it belonged to was consecrated in 1307, making the tower one of the oldest standing structures in Rivoli. Across the centuries the complex passed through religious suppression, municipal ownership and urban change, until the tower stood detached from its original nave. A restoration directed by architect Gianfranco Gritella repaired the structure. The campaign rebuilt the internal staircase on its nineteenth-century model, restored the clock's original mechanical works and treated the three bells. Of the medieval church itself, only this Gothic tower and fragments of the old apse remain above the borgo; the rest of the complex continues in the Baroque Collegiata downhill. The tower remains the town's defining silhouette.