Miradòlo Castle

The Miradòlo Castle is a historic building in San Secondo di Pinerolo, located in the locality of Miradolo and belonged to the family of the Cacherano di Bricherasio counts, an extinct family of the ancient Piedmontese nobility distinguished for military honors, which boasted the title of viceroy of the Savoy for some of its members but who also distinguished himself for appreciable philanthropy and patronage activities.

Despite the name, the building is not really a castle but a country villa, albeit characterized by neo-Gothic stylistic elements that recall elements of a traditional medieval castle.

The original building dates back to the 15th century and was a country estate of the Marquis Massel di Caresana. Expanded and redesigned in 1866 at the behest of the Marquis Maurizio Massel di Caresana, it was given as a dowry to his daughter Teresa Massel on the occasion of the wedding with Count Luigi Cacherano di Bricherasio and from whose marriage Sofia and Emanuele were born, who soon became prominent figures of the nobility Turin in the early twentieth century.

Sofia was a pupil of the famous Piedmontese painter Lorenzo Delleani and delighted as a painter as well as a patron and philanthropist, making Miradolo and the Turin family residence one of the most renowned cultural "salons", frequented by Delleani himself but also by the sculptor Leonardo Bistolfi, by the writer Edmondo De Amicis and by the cavalry captain Federico Caprilli, a close friend of the Bricherasio family.

His brother Emanuele, on the other hand, distinguished himself for his enterprising commitment in the nascent sector of the automotive industry, appearing among the founding partners of FIAT, whose deed of incorporation was signed in the Turin residence of the Bricherasio family, as depicted in a painting commissioned to Delleani himself.

The Bricherasio family regularly frequented this residence for long periods of holidays and hunting trips, even after the untimely death of their father Luigi; Delleani was assiduous and frequented by Federico Caprilli, who was also a friend and companion in arms of Emanuele himself at the Military Academy of Modena. Miradolo like Fubìne, Uelloni and Palazzo Bricherasio in Turin, continued to be the fulcrum of a lively cultural ferment that involved many artists and intellectuals of the Piedmontese territory at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Following the mysterious disappearance of Emanuele Bricherasio, who died suddenly in Agliè in 1904 at the age of thirty-five, the eldest daughter Sofia and her elderly mother increasingly frequented this residence. However, in the last years of her life the Countess Sofia, now the last descendant without any heir, moved permanently to Miradolo and on her death in 1950 this building was also included in the rich testamentary legacy in favor of Don Orione's Little Work of Divine Providence. who used the structure first as a convent and then as a retirement home for the elderly.

After decades of abandonment, in 2007 the entire complex was purchased by the Cosso Foundation which, after a meticulous and extensive restoration project, established its operational headquarters and manages its spaces for the realization of exhibition events, concerts, conferences and projects. and making Miradolo again a cultural reference for the territory.

The first exhibition event of the Cosso Foundation was organized in 2008 with the setting up of an exhibition dedicated to Lorenzo Delleani and to that "artistic cenacle" that Sofia di Bricherasio loved to surround herself with, becoming its patron and fervent promoter.

Map: Miradòlo Castle