Parella (Parela in Piedmontese) is an Italian town of 433 inhabitants in the metropolitan city of Turin, in Piedmont. It is part of the Canavese area and the castle it hosts is included in the Canavese castles circuit.
The Parella Castle
The castle of Parella is located in the municipality of the same
name. The castle dates back to the 13th century and features 17th
century alterations. Already belonging to the San Martino family and
then to the Marquises of Ivrea, it was built on the remains of a
structure from the early Middle Ages. In 2011 it was auctioned, like
the castle of Mazzè and, subsequently, the castle of Cesnola. It was
purchased by the Manital Company with the intention of recovering
the structure and the surrounding land, the Canavesani nurseries and
the vineyards already DOCG in the past, the latter to produce
Erbaluce DOCG. It is used as a private museum center.
Description
Structured on three wings, it has as many internal
courtyards facing various buildings and surrounded by a park; the
round tower decorated with terracotta friezes dates back to the
following century. The interiors are decorated with precious
frescoes and fake architectures. The Jupiter room has a sumptuous
ship hull vault and historical-mythological frescoes and contains a
gallery of illustrious men of the medieval era. The picture gallery
instead has the vault decorated with six allegorical scenes that
evoke various themes: love, justice, faith, strength, virtue and
value.
The old paper mill
The fourteenth-century tower: belonging to
the ancient manor of the San Martino di Parella (possibly destroyed
at the time of the revolt of the Tuchinis in the fourteenth
century); it is built with ashlars of stone alternating with bands
of bricks and culminates at the top with the apparatus of the
machicolations supported by hanging brick arches
The parish
church of San Michele (19th century)
Villa Barattia
Large isolated building in an eclectic style, with two floors
above ground. Plastered masonry with faux ashlar decorations on the
ground floor and frescoed string courses. In the southeastern corner
there is a belvedere with hanging arches. The main access is from
the southwest corner via a stone staircase with the shape of a
quarter of a circle; the floors are flat, with decorations. The part
of the garden facing the street is bordered by a parapet with stone
balustrades, ending in the corner in a circular belvedere.
Second villa
Eclectic style building, characterized by the shape
of the steeply sloping roof. The plant is almost square, with two
floors above ground and a third floor attic. The walls are in
plastered masonry with some stone decorations on the cantonal and in
brick on the string courses and on the frames of some windows. A
service building with wooden walls is attached to the eastern side.
The particular roof, with the very sloping slopes of the roof, is in
lose on a wooden frame.
The Rosary Chapel (16th century)
Leaning against the castle is the chapel of the Rosary, an
extreme offshoot of the municipality of Parella on the border with
Colleretto: the date of its foundation and the name of the person
who had it built are unknown. Ownership of the chapel was
controversial and it is not certain whether it belonged to the lords
of the castle, given the proximity to it, or to the community of the
faithful, especially as there was a private chapel inside the
castle, of which traces still remain. From the known elements, it
can be thought that it was erected between 1585 and 1610, and in any
case it had intense religious activity since 1620 and a zealous
Brotherhood of the Holy Rosary was linked to its altar. But at a
certain point a continuous decline began which in the early 1900s
reduced the chapel to a state that could be used as a storage room
for agricultural vehicles and municipal warehouse. In 1964 the
parish priest Don Bellis conceived the project to restore it and
bring it to a state of efficiency as a place of worship and started
a collection, with the support of a popular committee, for the
renovation.
Villino Barattia
Villino Barattia is a historic art nouveau residence in Parella in Piedmont. The villa was built as an outbuilding within the park of Villa Barattia by Cavalier Giacomo Barattia, an entrepreneur active in publishing and in the paper industry. To design the building was the engineer Giovanni Ferrando, active in Turin, Borgofranco and Lessolo. With its shapes that recall those of an English cottage, the building represents an exception in the Canavese architectural panorama.