Santa Maria della Spina

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TITOLO: Santa Maria della Spina

CORPO: The construction of the church can be traced back to the beginning of the 12th century, mentioned for the first time in a document dated 1118, in the list of assets owned by the Abbey of San Solutore in Turin. In a document dated November 26, 1200, it reads that Remota is the “priorissa ecclesiae Sancte Marie de Briono.” The Cistercian nuns previously occupied, as evidenced by a document dated June 30, 1197, the monastery of San Martiniano. Consecrated on December 30, 1283, by the Bishop of Turin Goffredo di Montanaro, it is to be attributed to the Romanesque-Lombard style and was built around the year 1200. In the 13th century, the Cistercian female Priory of Brione was the strongest entity ruling in Val della Torre; it extended its influence even outside the valley and as far as Turin, even lending money and carrying out banking operations of deposits and loans. Towards the 14th century, the decline of the monastery began, becoming more pronounced in the following century. In the report of the pastoral visit by Mons. Peruzzi (Bishop of Sarsina) in 1584, it reads that the church is “vast but fiercely desolate and with several most indecent altars.” Following the pastoral visit, the specification “della Spina” (of the Thorn) was added. When the Council of Trent forbade female monasteries from being located outside inhabited centers, the monastery of Santa Maria—where the rule of Saint Clare had already replaced the Cistercian one—moved to Moncalieri. On December 1, 1601, by decree of the Archbishop of Turin, Monsignor Broglia, it was definitively closed and the nuns transferred to the Poor Clares of Turin; the church of Brione was then established as a parish. Classified as a national monument on July 15, 1903.