CHIERI  , a

town and episcopal see of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of Turin, 13 M . S.E. by rail and 8 m. by road from the town of Turin . Pop . (1901) 11,929 (town), 13,803 (commune) . Its Gothic cathedral, founded in 1037 and reconstructed in 1405, is the largest in Piedmont, and has a 13th century octagonal baptistery . Chieri was subject to the bishop of Turin in the 9th and loth centuries, it became independent in the 11th century . In 1347 it submitted voluntarily to Count Amedeus VI. of Savoy to save itself from the marquis of Monferrato, and finally came under the dominion of Savoy in the 16th century . In 1785 it was made into a principality of the duke of Aosta . It was an early centre of trade and manufacture; and in the middle of the 15th century produced about 100,000 pieces of cotton goods per annum . See L .