Grugliasco (; ) is a town and comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin, in the region of Piedmont, Italy, about west of Turin. It has inhabitants.
Grugliasco shares borders with the municipalities of Turin, Collegno, and Rivoli.
The name may be derived from the pre-aural Gruglascum or Curlascum, from Currelio-ascum, the ancient name of the Roman settler to whom, at the time of the Roman centuriation of the western suburbs of Turin, was perhaps assigned part of these lands. Other scholars instead argue that the toponym refers to crane birds, which perhaps once stopped here during seasonal migrations. The fact is that the community of Grugliasco chose as a heraldic symbol for its coat of arms, attested for the first time in 1613, the bird called "gru".
The first historical documents mentioning the town date back to 1047, when Emperor Henry III the Black cited the canonical Chapter of the Cathedral of San Giovanni di Torino with the rights to the property owned, including the curtis Grugliascum, with the already existing church dedicated to San Cassiano di Imola, and the tenth paid to the Chapter by the inhabitants of the villa. The town developed over time around the nucleus of the Turin canons' property, which corresponds to the current historic centre, adjacent to the ancient church of San Cassiano. Despite the strong devotion that bound them to the ancient chapel, in 1599 the Grugliaschese placed themselves under the 'protection' of San Rocco[8] against the looming plague: San Rocco thus became the new patron saint of the country, and a church was dedicated to him, from which the township in which it was erected takes its name. The current appearance of the chapel is the result of the renovation carried out between 1826 and 1828 on a project by the architect Ignazio Michela. At the beginning of the thirteenth century, the village called Grugliascum was included in the possessions of the Savoia-Acaia, until 1619, when the Duke of Savoy Carlo Emanuele Io erected it as a county, infeudating it to the City of Turin. The Grugliaschese county, therefore, expanded, economically and geographically, throughout the seventeenth century, to the limits of an ancient city's walls (destroyed in 1384 by the Torinesi).
Scarce are, however, the vestiges of the Late Middle Ages that are limited to the civic tower, and to a fresco (Madonna col Bambino) on the facade of San Cassiano. In addition, the non-existent irrigation of the territory, devoid of streams or rivers, led to a relatively slow urbanisation. The creation, in the fifteenth century, of a bealera still existing, and mostly buried and which is still used for the irrigation of the fields in Strada del Gerbido, determined a faster economic development of the village. The canal was derived from the Dora Riparia near Alpignano; after crossing Rivoli and Collegno, it reached as far as Grugliasco, near the ancient Chapel of San Vito (also from about 1450âÂÂ1490), where it branched into two subchannels, the upper horn (towards the south) and the lower horn (towards the east). Grugliasco was subject to an epidemic of plague in the sixteenth century, and in the eighteenth century gained dignity and territorial independence from Turin. Around the sixteenth century, the water supply led to the birth of a factory near Villa Valperga. Other spinning tops were then built along the upper horn, which took the name of via dei Filatoi. However, in the nineteenth century, the seer economy suffered a serious crisis, due to mulberry disease and the predominance assumed by France in this particular textile sector.
Grugliasco underwent urban and industrial growth at the beginning of the twentieth century, spreading northwards primarily due to the Leumann cotton mill in Collegno and the relative fraction Fabbrichetta close to the same. The last industrial and urban expansion was due to the proximity to the FIAT Mirafiori factories, which made Grugliasco an industrial centre of the automotive industry: in fact, the plants of Pininfarina, Bertone, Vignale, Westinghouse, Itca, and Cimat arose. Recently (XXI century), only a few remain active, while both the freight exchange centre called "SITO Interporto di Torino" and the new Turin fruit and vegetable markets C.A.A.T. have established themselves in the industrial area.
In 1945, members of the retreating German 34th Infantry and 5th Mountain divisions murdered 68 civilians in retaliation for a partisan ambush. in the town and in Collegno.
The coat of arms and banner were granted by decree of the President of the Republic on 3 July 1962. "In red, to the silver crane supported by a mountain of green, holding in the right paw the silver watch. Exterior ornaments from the municipality with the crown topped by another crane from the unfolded flight." The banner is a white drape richly adorned with silver embroidery.
Interprovincial Institute for Mental Infirms "Vittorio Emanuele III" (former psychiatric hospital).
In Grugliasco, there are:
The "Pablo Neruda" library in Grugliasco was founded on 2 January 1970, in a building originally belonging to the Maristi Brothers, a religious congregation. Starting from a single room, the library received three extensions, the last of which was in 2002. Its catalogue has been computerised since 1998, and it has entered the SBAM[14] since 2009.
Starting in 2001, Grugliasco began to establish itself as one of the main training centres of the Contemporary Circus nationwide. The Le Serre park hosts a contemporary circus school throughout the year and in summer the international contemporary circus exhibition "Sul Filo del Circo/Au Fil du Cirque", which has now become the largest Italian event completely dedicated to the contemporary circus.
Although St. Rocco is celebrated on 16 August, since 2000 the ecclesiastical authority has allowed the Grugliaschesi to move the patronal feast to 31 January, in memory of the first procession made to implore, through the intercession of the saint, the end of the pestilence. However, the main church is not named after St. Roch, but St. Cassianus. However, in memory of the end of the plague, every first Sunday of June, since 1984, the well-known Palio della Gru has been celebrated, organised by the CojtÃÂ Gruliascheisa Association, which sees seven villages in the city compete, in a re-enactment of the monks who towed the carts of the plague patients of 1599. The racing carts support a crane (symbol of the city), and travel a track in the historic centre; the Palio ends at a collective fair on the weekend. The event is included in the "Travel in Time" circuit of the province of Turin as a historical re-enactment.
"Small rural municipality of about eight thousand inhabitants, generously engaged in the partisan struggle, suffered a heinous massacre by Nazi troops who brutally slaughtered twenty heroic citizens, including young people not yet in their twenties. A bright example of a spirit of sacrifice and a deep faith in a free and democratic Italy".
After World War II, Grugliasco est, bordering the municipality of Turin, was involved with the adjacent municipality of Collegno to the north, by the project of Corso Marche, a new boulevard that was to cross the suburbs of the city of Turin. Subsequently, Grugliasco was affected by the expansion of the southeast area, called Certezza zone (Corso Allamano/Strada antica di Grugliasco/Piccolo Hotel), and by the redevelopment of the nearby hamlet Gerbido, on the border with the Centro Europa area of the Mirafiori Nord district of Turin. The plan provided for the road connection of the current motorway ring road west of Turin, with the exits/entrances of Rivoli, the railway station of Interporto "Sito", and Corso Allamano. In 2007, according to the intervention plan "Corso Marche" by the architects Augusto Cagnardi and Vittorio Gregotti[16], the northern area of Grugliasco becomes a superficial part of a series of multi-level tunnels: on the second basement level, the trains of the planned goods eaves of the high-speed railway (TAV) will pass, while on the surface course, roofed by these two tunnels, will be remodelled with standards common to the rest of the future course. In the municipality of Grugliasco, the project will have slightly different characteristics than most of the intervention plan:
Grugliasco is twinned with: