Parish Church of San Pietro in Vincoli

Site overview

The origins of the parish church of Lanzo are believed to be very ancient. In 1545, Gian Giacomo Medici, Lord of Lanzo, ordered it to be demolished to isolate and better defend the castle. Following the French conquest and demolition of the castle around the middle of the 16th century, the church was rebuilt and enlarged, and reopened for worship in 1591.

In the 19th century, the Parish Church of San Pietro in Vincoli underwent alterations and embellishment, first under Vicar Tagna and then under the Blessed Federico Albert, who commissioned a new Neo-Gothic façade on the north side and began work on the bell tower.

The interior of the church is rich in paintings and works of art, including the processional float of St Peter, a 17th-century carved wooden group depicting the liberation of the Apostle, still used today during the patronal festival on 1 August.

Also notable are the gilded pulpit and the G. Mola organ of 1894. The church’s vaults were frescoed in the 19th century by the painter G. Guglielmino. Several canvases are of particular interest. The Resurrection, a 17th-century work, is placed on the altar under the patronage of the Lanzo families Bo, Gallenga, and Usseglio.

St Francis Receiving the Stigmata, an altarpiece by Carlo Saraceni, known as “the Venetian”, was commissioned in 1605 by Bartolomeo Bonesio for the altar of the Capuchin convent church in Lanzo. The Liberation of St Peter from Prison, an 18th-century canvas from the school of Beaumont, is located above the high altar.

Saints Romuald and Boniface, an altarpiece by Giovanni Francesco Sacchetti, dating from between 1663 and 1675, was painted for the Camaldolese Hermitage of Lanzo.

The Holy Shroud and symbols of the Passion are also frescoed in a dome of the right nave, in memory of the Shroud’s passage in 1535 during its transfer from Chambéry to Turin.

Today in the chapel dedicated to the Blessed Federico Albert, who died in Lanzo in 1876, his remains are kept. A display case from the Salesian College shows objects used by St John Bosco during his visits to Lanzo.