Parella, Turin — Area Guide & Where to Stay

What are the main landmarks in Parella?

The Villa della Tesoriera stands in its park on Corso Francia, built by Jacopo Maggi in 1715 for Aymo Ferrero di Cocconato, treasurer to Vittorio Amedeo II, from whom the name comes. It passed to the dukes of Sartirana between 1869 and 1904 and housed the Istituto Sociale until 1975. The Monastero della Visitazione went up between 1870 and 1904 in Piazza del Monastero, was hit in the bombing of 1942, and is now hemmed in by blocks raised in 1970.

The Aeroporto di Torino-Aeritalia adjoins Collegno.

What is the history of Parella?

Parella takes its name from a very old cascina that stood between via Servais, via Gravere and corso Monte Grappa, where the Centro Civico of Circoscrizione 4 now sits inside the Neil Armstrong school complex. Built for the Conterno family, it was bought and enlarged around the fifteenth century by the marchesi San Martino di Parella, nobles of the Canavese town of that name. They already held the nearby cascina Balestré, among the workshops and low artisans' houses of the borgo around the square now named for Tommaso Campanella.

Other cascine stood about. The Borrello and the Lionetto were among them.

Where is Parella?

Corso Francia bounds Parella on the south, against Pozzo Strada. Corso Lecce and via Zumaglia mark the east towards Campidoglio, Corso Regina Margherita the north towards Vallette and Lucento, and the comune of Collegno the west.