Discover Collegno

When looking for a hotel in Collegno, it helps to first distinguish the themes you want to shape your stay. The Dora Riparia represents a landscape with riverside paths; the Certosa Reale, Villaggio Leumann and archaeological finds offer historical perspectives. This allows you to weigh nature, architectural history and industrial history as separate areas of interest. The town’s history ranges from medieval building phases to traces of early medieval settlements.

Dora Riparia: landscapes and paths

The Parco Agronaturale della Dora Riparia stretches along the river. Its landscape includes cultivated fields, remnants of riparian woodland and riverside vegetation. A combined pedestrian and cycling bridge in the park connects the walking trails on opposite banks. When planning your trip, the character of the river landscape and the connection between the walking trails are two distinct aspects to consider.

Certosa Reale and building history

The area of the Certosa Reale covers approximately 400,000 m² and includes the centuries-old Dalla Chiesa Park and the Royal Certosa. The area figure describes the extent of the site as a whole; its building history adds specific historical events to this spatial perspective. The construction of the large cloister in 1700 and Juvarra’s work on the portal marked the opening of the monastic complex towards Collegno’s historic centre. In this way, the site’s spatial context is linked to an architectural development that connects the complex with the town centre.

Villaggio Leumann and LeumAPP

The entire Villaggio Leumann is designated as an urban settlement of historical and environmental significance. This perspective focuses on the settlement as a whole. Those wishing to explore this theme further can find two related visitor routes in LeumAPP: “una città nella città” and “un gioiello di archeologia industriale”. These can be understood as “a city within a city” and “a jewel of industrial archaeology”; they present different thematic perspectives. LeumAPP offers almost two hours of multimedia content, and both routes are available with English subtitles. The time estimate refers to the amount of content, not to a guaranteed duration for the tour.

Archaeology and Castello Provana

Excavations in Collegno uncovered a Gothic and a Lombard necropolis, as well as the remains of an early medieval village of huts. A necropolis is a burial site; the two terms distinguish the finds according to their historical attribution. The remains of the village of huts offer an additional perspective on early medieval settlement. Castello Provana di Collegno has its own sequence of building events: it was built around 1171 by Umberto III the Blessed of Savoy. It was largely destroyed in the 13th century and rebuilt towards the end of that century. In 1599, Duke Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy granted the fief of Collegno to Giovanni Francesco Provana di Carignano. The granting of the fief is a different historical event from the construction and rebuilding of the castle; this makes it possible to distinguish settlement evidence, building history and the granting of the fief as separate perspectives.

Via della Varda in the Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, Via della Varda was the stretch in Collegno of Via Pellegrina, also known as Via Pellerina. The road ran from Turin along the right bank of the Dora and led to a bridge documented as early as 1210. Thus, alongside building and settlement histories, a historic route offers another perspective: the focus here is on the name of this stretch of road, its course along the river and its connection to a bridge mentioned in historical records. For travellers interested in historic routes, this perspective complements the building history of the Certosa and Castello with the history of a thoroughfare.

Discover more travel destinations: Valprato Soana, Montalenghe, Foglizzo, Front, Carignano, Locana, Plan, Buttigliera Alta

For the wider travel overview: Turin.