The old town

The City Walls

Name: Mechanical Nativity – Chiesa San Giovanni
Start: 2024-12-11
End: 2024-12-11
Location: Chiesa di San Giovanni

Norberto Rosa wrote in his memoirs that Avigliana had strong boundary walls and several entrance gates. Of these, three have been destroyed in recent times. The gate called “The Moro”, adorned with paintings, was demolished around 1815 in order to allow “Laocoonte” to pass through when back from France with a dislocated foot. Sant’Agostino’s gate, also decorated with paintings, was demolished by a mayor of the town around 1830, so that the town council wouldn’t be put into the inconvenience of having to pay for its restoration.

The gate “Delle Figlie” was demolished only few years ago under the pretext of having to widening the road that was already very wide.
To these, we should add Porta Ferrata reduced, by the end of the 19th century, to a mass of ruins and definitely taken away; “Porta Folla”, located in Via Umberto and near the boundary walls, so called because of its rotating mechanism.
All the gates listed in medieval documents, Porta de Torsach, Porta Bealis, Porta Giroudi, Porta Communitatis and porta Nova, are very difficult to locate and identify. The surviving gates have therefore an even more important historical and architectural value : Porta San Pietro, situated at the end of the suburb, with its brick and stone wall crowned by Ghibelline battlements; Porta Ferronia, also called “Porta delle Braide” because facing that region and with its portcullis system; Porta di Santa Maria or of Via XX Settembre, decorated in ceramics with chiaroscure effects; Porta San Giovanni or of Via Garibaldi, with a double door system and absorbed in the 14th century by the building complex of Casa Riva, so that a traveller, on entering would have an overall view of the gothic façade of the Parish Church of Borgo Nuovo.