Former Chapel of St Joseph

of great interest are the ruins of a singular building incorporated inside the chapel of San Giuseppe, a Closed San Michele. The worship building, characterized by an unusual central plan with four curved recesses at the corners and a staircase to first floor access located on the south side, is currently visible in the forms of its last renovation dated to the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the family singer closed, owner of the building, made him devote a chapel dedicated to Saint Joseph. To this era date back interior decoration in plaster yellow with baseboard faux marble, the construction of the current coverage, the painting in the facade depicting the Virgin and Child with St. Giuseppe. In fact, the transformation of the building into a place of worship occurred already in the second half of the XVIII century, when it appears for the first time in Savoy cartography with the toponym "pilone".

The recent restoration of the church has been the occasion for archaeological investigations that have identified a previous building, incorporated inside the latest chapel. The most ancient phase of construction is visible today, from the inside of the lower compartment, in the portion at the base of the walls: this is four walls with a rectilinear connected by respective curvilinear structures in which you can recognize the inner sides of the four plant towers circular perhaps. The masonry made with stones linked by Malta earthy of poor quality are stored at only one level of foundations. The morphology of this building, that defines an interior space of about 6,50 m in diameter, is certainly not attributable to a place of worship and it seems rather interpretable as a small fortress with four towers.

The archaeological dig has also allowed the identification of a rectilinear masonry with north-south trend engaged on the southern flank of the ancient monument, identifiable probably with the portion of the defensive wall connected to the fortification. The original structure of the building seems to be then been maintained and used over the centuries until its transformation in the church. It is in fact visible above the foundations the oldest a second constructive phase represented by the reconstruction of the walls of the plug and the four turrets, attributable to the X-XI century.

The former Chapel of San Giuseppe houses in its interior the planetarium.