Amid elegant narrow streets and landscaped piazzettas, majestic baroque palazzi house the city’s finest museums: the Galleria Sabauda, a priceless collection of paintings from the 14th to the 17th centuries, and the Museo Egizio, the largest collection of Egyptian art and artefacts outside Cairo. Nearby, the Savoys made their country pleasuredome on the banks of the river Po in the tranquil parco Valentino. And so from one aristocracy to another, we go south from the Savoys to the Agnellis, the dynasty that shaped Turin as a powerhouse of industrial design. A hundred years on, the Renzo Piano-restored Lingotto complex, the Mirafiori plant and the Palazzo Vela are monuments to the age of Futurism and Post-Modernism. Many of the famous designs that have burned up and down autostradas worldwide for decades emerged from these workshops, as the Museo Dell’ Automobile testifies. SightsGalleria Sabauda via Accademia delle Scienze 6, T 011 547440, Tue-Sat, 0830-1930 (until 2330 on public holidays that fall on Saturdays),E 4.13, E 8 for a visit combined with the Museo Egizio. In the great tradition of monarchs, the dukes and duchesses of the House of Savoy (in Italian, la casa sabauda) were great collectors and patrons of the arts. The Galleria Sabauda exhibits the royal collections from Carlo Emmanuele I (1532-1630) to Carlo Alberto (1798-1849). The enormous collection features works by the Piemontese masters who worked at the Savoy court, as well as other Italian masters and many Flemish and Dutch masters. This makes the Galleria Sabauda one of the most important art galleries in Italy. The museum is divided into seven sections over two floors of the Palazzo dell’Accademia delle Scienze which shares the space with the Museo Egizio. The first section is devoted to the Piemontese school from the 14th to the 16th centuries including a dramatic Crocifissione by one of Piedmont’s foremost artists of the period, Gaudenzio Ferraris (1475-1546). The next section deals with various Italian schools between the 14th and the 16th centuries including works by Beato Angelico, il Pollaiolo and il Bronzino. The third section on this floor is devoted to the Flemish and Dutch collection by Principe Eugenio di Savoia Soissons. Among many still-life and landscape canvasses, the most notable works are Le Stigamate di San Francesco by Jan Van Eyck, La Passione di Cristo by Hans Memling and Portrait of an Old Man by Rembrandt. On the floor above, the exhibition continues with the collection of Emanuele Filiberto and Carlo Emanuele I from 1550-1630. Included in this are works by il Guercino, il Bassano, the Cena in Casa di Simone by Veronese, L’Annunziazione by Gentileschi and la Dejanira tentata dalla furia by Rubens. Masterpieces such as Francisco Cairo’s anguished Erodiade con la testa del Battista and an oil by Van Dyck, I figli di Carlo I d’Inghilterra, a beautiful and emotive depiction of Charles’ I children, are also on display. There then follow some lovely depictions of Turin through the ages before the exhibition concludes with Venere e Marte con Cupido by Veronese and one of the oldest works in the museum, Duccio’s Madonna in trono con Bambino e due angeli. Museo Egizio via Accademia delle Scienze 6, T 011 561 7776, http://www.museoegizio.org Daily except Mon 0830-1930. E 6.20, E 3.10 for EU citizens aged 18-25, E 8 combined entry with Galleria Sabauda. Guided tours every Sat. Free to holders of Torino Card. Turin is home to the the largest and most important collection of ancient Egyptian art and artefacts outside Cairo itself, which comes as a surprise to many. It’s one of Turin’s many hidden charms and all goes back to a small royal collection which has grown over the centuries. In 1630 the Savoy royal family moved house from Chambery and transferred the Mensa Isiaca and their three large Egyptian statues to Turin. The collection began to grow to its current size under the reign of Carlo Felice and it was moved in 1824 to its current residence in the Palazzo dell’Accademia della Scienze. Following fashion and revived interest in Egyptiana, sparked by Napoleon’s expeditions and discoveries, Carlo Felice decided to buy the Drovetti colletion consisting of over 8,000 pieces. The cataloguing and installation of these pieces as well as the gradual tripling of the collection was due to the archaeologist Ernesto Schiaparelli, curator of the musem from 1894. He was responsible for the discovery and explanation of many of the important pieces from the early Egyptian civilization on display which subsequently illuminated the whole field of Egyptology. Arranged across three floors including the basement, the exhibition passes from circa 4000 BC to around AD 400 and in the first hall there are some very important exhibits. One of the most intact and oldest examples of mummification is beautifully preserved in glass displays complete with burial gifts; the Papiro dei Re (the charter of kings) is also on display, the only known ancient Egyptian to list the Egyptian pharaohs in order of succession. Further on, the museum displays a mouthwatering and awe-inspiring collection of sphinxes, busts, masks and statues including those of Ramses II. On the first floor is an eerie sequence of tombs and chapels, most stunningly that of Kha and Mirit, complete with wall-paintings, more coffins and symbolic artefacts. You could quite imagine yourself as Tintin in the Cigars of the Pharaoh or Rachel Weisz in The Mummy with all these treasures around you. Like dinosaurs, ancient Egypt continues to fascinate and Turin’s museum is the second best place in the world to catch the bug. Allow yourself at least a couple of hours to explore. Pinacoteca dell’Accademia Albertina via Accademia Albertina 6, T 011 8177862, http://www.accademiaalbertina.torino.it Tue-Sun 0900-1300, 1500-1900 E 4. Although Turin’s state art gallery is upstaged by the Galleria Sabauda, its 300 pictures still represent an important collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Spread across 12 rooms, a few highlights of the exhibition are landscapes by Christian Wehrlin, Francesco Antonio Mayerle and Daniel Seyter, Cain and Abel by Giulio Cesare Procaccini, still-life canvasses by Nicasius Bernaerts, depictions of the fathers of the church by Filippo Lippi and Deposition by Maarten van Heemskerck. The pride of the museum is the unrivalled collection of 60 cartoons of ecclesiastical iconography by Gaudenzio Ferrari, donated in 1832.The accademia also has a library containing many rare and valuable tomes and prints. Chiesa di San Filippo Neri via Maria Vittoria 5, T 011 538456. 0800-1200, 1500-1900. At the crossroads of via Maria Vittoria and via Accademia delle Scienze. This majestic church with an imperial neoclassical façade and a four-columned Corinthian portico, was built between 1675 and 1772, undergoing the influence of many architects: Guarino Guarini, Michelangelo Garove and finally Filippo Juvarra. It has the largest church interior in Turin, a majestic single aisle flanked by stunning elliptical windows and stucco work. The church contains many art treasures, notably the main altar and paintings by Carlo Maratta, Francesco Solimena and Francesco Trevisani. Next door is the Oratorio di San Filippo, also by Juvarra, dating from 1723 and with a pretty frescoed vault, more stucco and paintings by Mattia Franceschini and both Giovanni and Sebastiano Conca. Teatro Carignano piazza Carignano, corner via Maria Vittoria 5, T 011 541136. Built originally in 1752 on a design by Benedetto Alfieri, this theatre has burnt down twice. The current building, restored in the 19th century, was completed in 1787 to designs by Giovanni Battista Feroggio. The plush theatre interior is beautifully set off by a frescoed ceiling, the work of Francesco Gonin, who also painted the ceiling in the famous Ristorante del Cambio next door. Palazzo Carignano via Accademia delle Scienze 5, T 011 5621147. With its curvy alternately concave and convex façade, the red-brick Palazzo Carignano is one of Turin’s most unusual baroque buildings. Designed by Guarino Guarini and built between 1679-94, the building was doubled in size in the 19th century beyond the internal courtyard with a whole wing added by Giuseppe Bollati on plans by Gaetano Ferri. Inside, two curved staircases lead up to the piano nobile and the elliptical ballroom which was converted into the seat of the first Subalpine Parliament in 1848 as a precursor to the birth of the Italian state in 1861. Appropriately, the palace now houses the Museo del Risorgimento Italiano. To the rear the comparatively blunt façade looks out onto piazza Carlo Alberto with a central equestrian statue to Carlo and beyond the former stables of the Principe di Carignano which between 1959-73 were merged with the Biblioteca Nazionale. Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano via Accademia delle Scienze 5, T 011 5621147, http://www.regione.piemonte.it/cultura/risorgimento Tue-Sun 0900-1900. E 5, free to holders of Torino Card. Housed in the suitably grandiose Palazzo Carignano, the Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano is unbelievably the only museum in the country devoted to celebrating and remembering Italy’s birth as a nation. After a peripatetic beginning, the museum finally opened here in 1965. The museum takes as its start point the 1706 victory of the Savoy over the invading Franco-Spanish armies, passing through the Napoleonic occupation to the first traces of an independence movement that followed the French Emperor’s unseating. It also documents the formation of the statute of nationhood, the Statuto Albertino, the declaration of independent Italy in 1861 and the founding of the Italian parliament. In terms of exhibits, the museum features many paintings of important battles and triumphal moments such as the battles of Goito and San Martino, portraits and busts of the main protagonists such as d’Azeglio, Cavour, Mazzini and Garibaldi and documents of early nationalist propaganda. It also displays the texts of the statutes and recreations of the prison cell of the revolutionary writer Silvi Pellico and the Parliament chamber that was never used because power was transferred to Florence in 1865. From an objective point of view, the museum is a fascinating and compelling account of the birth of a nation whose youth still surprises. Piazza Carlina Via Accademia Albertina This area of Turin is notable for its many interlinking little piazzas. Also known as piazza Carlo Emanuele II, this square was once the site of Turin’s wine market. At the centre of the piazza is a monument to Camillo Benso di Cavour, one of the founders of the Italian constitution. Surrounding the square are a number of notable buildings: at number 13, the Palazzo Roero di Guarene with a baroque façade from 1730 by Filippo Juvarra; at number 4, the Collegio delle Province, the work of Bernardo Vittone; on the southern side the church of Santa Croce, T 011 8126703, 0800-1200, 1500-1900, also designed by Juvarra. Next door to piazza Carlina is piazza Cavour, built in 1835 on the site of a former city fortification. Further on still is piazza Maria Teresa, encircled by many elegant palazzi including at via Giolitti 46 the Casa Ponzio Vaglia by Alessandro Antonelli (of the Mole Antonelliana). Museo Regionale della Scienze Naturali via Giolitti 36, T 011 4323080. Wed-Mon 1000-1900. E 5. The imposing and rather forbidding mass of this former hospital was designed by Amedeo di Castellamonte in 1680. The hospital is now the seat of Turin’s natural science museum, the Museo Regionale delle Scienze Naturali, founded in 1978 and consisting in a relatively unspectacular collection of geological, zoological, botanical and mineral exhibits. Stazione Porta Nuova C.so Vittorio Emanuele II Turin’s impressive railway terminus is equal in stature, industrial grandeur and atmosphere to Milan’s Centrale station. The station was built between 1863-68 on the site of the former city fortifications and replaced an old imbarcadero used solely for trains to Genoa. The design of the station was a collaboration between the architects Alessandro Mazzucchetti and Carlo Ceppi. Built just after the Risorgimento, its unusual, ornate façade with white and blushed stone, delicate ironwork and windows above towering majestic columns constitutes a very emphatic statement of national pride. The fortunes of Porta Nuova are shortly to change as Porta Susa becomes Turin’s principal rail link and Eurostar hub. Ponte Umberto I Turin’s most majestic bridge over the river Po is at the end of the imperial main boulevard of Corso Vittorio Emanuele II. A triple-arch and ornate construction, it was designed by Vincenzo Micheli and Enrico Ristori and built between 1903-07 on the ruins of the 19th-century Ponte di Maria Teresa. Along both sides of the bridge are allegorical bronze statues by Luigi Contratti and Cesare Reduzzi. At the entrance to the parco Valentino on the city side of the bridge is the Arco Monumentale all’Artigliere, a monumental arch. Parco del Valentino C.so Massimo d’Azeglio. Winter 0900-1700, summer 0800-2200. Stretching for 30 soothing riverside hectares between the two bridges across the Po is Turin’s most suggestive, atmospheric and romantic park. It is a perfect place for gentle Sunday strolls and lovers’ trysts. Parco del Valentino owes its current appearance to the design of the 19th- century French landscape architect, Jean-Pierre Barillet-Deschamps. He designed the park’s system of paths, woods, artificial mounds and little valleys, and its lake and horse riding grounds in 1864. The park was opened as Italy’s first public garden in 1856, a few years before this. The Valentino, as the locals refer to it, contains a number of Turin’s most interesting and important cultural sites including the Castello Valentino and its Orto Botanico (botanical garden), the Borgo Medioevale model medieval castle and village, and the exhibition complex of Torino Esposizioni. Turin hosted many international fairs from 1884 onwards. The 1961 expo gave birth to the Giardino Roccioso (rock garden) at the park’s centre by Giuseppe Rati, a kaleidoscope of flowers watered and interspersed by terraces of rock arrangements, fountains and streams. The beautiful rose garden, Il Roseto, was added in 1965. The park also has many notable and pretty fountains and statues such as the Fontana dei Dodici Mesi at its southern end, designed by Carlo Ceppi in 1898 for the 50th anniversary of the Statuto Albertino. Castello Valentino parco del Valentino. By far the most famous and majestic building in the Parco Valentino is the former royal castle. Its horseshoe-shaped courtyard resembles a cross between the Louvre and a chateau on the Loire. But despite the unmistakable Louis XIV resonances in its grey triangular rooftops and mansard windows, the complete excess of baroque detail on its honey-coloured walls could only be Italian. It was once merely a humble boathouse until in 1564 it was bought by Duke Emmanuele Filiberto. It was then passed down the Savoy line to Carlo Emmanuele I who gave it as a present to Maria Cristina, daughter of the King of France. She made it her residence and court and from her the French influence on the architecture can be traced. She commissioned its transformation between 1630 and 1660 and the palace that grew up was the centre of the Savoy court and the core of political life in the 17th century. It was also the scene of accords, armistices and alliances formed, signed and agreed, as well as numerous opulent parties and receptions. Facing the river Po, Maria Cristina had pavilions, courtyards and porticoed galleries and terraces added to either side, while the river, hillside and dense woodland in the park added a countryside air. Maria Cristina died in 1663 and thus begun the Castello’s decline and fall. Since 1906, this magnificent building has been the architecture faculty of Turin’s polytechnic, an inspiring ivory tower for any student. The Salone Centrale and Stanza della Caccia rooms still conserve and convey some of the castle’s former role and splendour. L’Orto Botanico viale Mattioli 25, T 011 6612447. Sat, Sun and public holidays 0900-1300, 1500-1900, Mon-Fri by appointment only. Closed Oct-Mar. E 3. Flanking the northern side of the courtyard of the Castello Valentino is Turin’s botanical garden. It was founded in 1729 on the wish of Vittorio Amedeo III with the express aim of cultivating the plants that formed the basis of early 18th-century medicine. The atrium was added in 1894 and in its entirety the complex is considered one of the most important Italian centres of botanical studies. It follows on from a pedigree which, botany enthusiasts will be interested to know, saw such herbal luminaries as Allioni, Balbis, Moris and Delponte work here in the 18th and 19th centuries. Second only to that in Florence, the herb garden here conserves examples of 700,000 herbs, while the pride of the gardens is the 64-volume Iconographia Tauriensis containing over 7,500 scientific and beautifully intricate watercolours of the plants grown here between 1800 and 1864. Il Borgo e Rocca Medioevale viale Virgilio, parco del Valentino, T 011 4431701. Borgo: Mon-Sun 0900-1900. E 2.58. Although appearing remarkably realistic, the Rocca (medieval citadel) and village at the Po riverside to the south of the park is in fact a model and therefore kind of al fresco museum. Complete with drawbridge, cobbled streets, little houses and workshops the model is an exact facsimile of medieval Piemontese architecture in 15th century. It was conceived and built for the 1884 Expo by Giuseppe Giocosa and Alfredo d’Andrade. Torino Esposizioni parco del Valentino. Turin has long been a host of prestigious international exhibitions and trade fairs. The modern exhibition complex of Torino Esposizioni was built in 1961 to celebrate 100 years of Italian unity and its functionalist block architecture reflects its 1960s origins. Until 1990 the complex hosted the Salone Internazionale dell’Automobile and it still hosts important events that keep Turin on the national cultural calendar. Around and within the complex are the Teatro Nuovo, the Palazzo di Ghiaccio ice rink and the Palazzina Promotrice delle Belle Arti established in 1919. The Villa Glicini building is the headquarters of Turin Club di Scherma (fencing club) which hosts international competitions. Palazzo Vela (Palazzo delle Mostre) via Ventimiglia 145. Shaped like a sail, hence its nickname Palazzo Vela, this building is an iconic piece of Turin’s 20th- century industrial architecture. It is part of a complex of buildings known as ‘Italia 61’ built to celebrate 100 years of the unification of Italy. Designed by Annibale and Giorgio Rigotti and made of reinforced concrete and glass, the building houses exhibitions, concerts and sports events. Fans of The Italian Job will remember the scene from the epic car chase when Michael Caine and his three gold-laden minis go up the ramp of the Palazzo Vela chased by the carabinieri in a rickety old police car which promptly conks out allowing the thieves to escape. Further on is the Palazzo del Lavoro, via Ventimiglia 201, a similarly iconic building consisting in a large square ceiling supported by metal umbrellas and 20-m concrete columns. Il Lingotto via Nizza 280. The Lingotto building is a work of architecture every bit as important in the history of industrial modernism and the avant-garde as works of fine art from those periods. The building was born in 1923 when the newly-founded Fiat car company needed to bring its production line under one roof to maximize efficiency. When the plant was opened in the presence of King Vittorio Emanuele III, Le Corbusier called it ‘a model of urbanism’ and the architect of Futurism, Filippo Marinetti, called it “la prima invenzione costruttiva futurista” (the first constructive Futurist construction). The famous rooftop test track familiar to fans of The Italian Job still seems futuristic. In reality, though, delays to building caused by the First World War meant that the Lingotto plant was already behind the times and the rooftop track was impractical for speed-testing. Lingotto survived as a factory until 1982 before being superceded by the enormous Mirafiori installation. It formally closed in 1983 only for the Genoese architect, Renzo Piano, to be summoned to transform it into a multi-purpose modern Fiat showpiece. Lingotto reopened with a hotel, cinema complex, landscaped gardens, university faculty, exhibition centre and auditorium. On the top, a signature piece of Piano architecture, la Bolla, a spherical glass ball, acts as a conference centre complete with helipad while Lo Scrigno, a ship-like building, is an art gallery, Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, via Nizza 230, T 011 6862008, Tue-Sun 0900-1900, E 4, donated to the city by Agnelli and his wife containing 25 masterpieces of painting and sculpture including works by Canaletto, Matisse, Balla and Picasso. Fiat Mirafiori C.so Unione Sovietica. Mirafiori is the enormous factory of the Agnelli Fiat empire – Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino – and the hub of the industry that made Turin’s fortune since the beginning of the 20th century. Designed by Vittorio Bonade Bottino and inaugurated by Mussolini on 15 May 1939, it is still Italy’s largest factory and one of the largest in the world, covering over a million square metres, 300,000 of them under cover, 2.5 km-worth of test track, 7 km of tunnels and 11 km of railtrack. The Mirafiori plant attracted many Italians from the Mezzogiorno (the deep south) to seek their fortune here in the 1950s and 1960s, accounting for the rich mix of Italian dialects in Turin but also the acres of dreary working-class suburbs that characterize the south of the city. Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile C.so d’Italia 40, T 011 677666, http://www.museoauto.org Tue-Sun 1000-1830, Thu until 2200.E 5.50. It is appropriate that the country’s most important car museum should be found in the seat of the Italian capital of car production, in a country that has contributed so many great designs and so much flair to the car industry down the decades. Conceived by Amedeo Albertini, it was opened in 1960 and takes visitors on a history of the development of the car, from the evolution the tyre via early steam-powered vehicles to the present day. Cars from all over the world are represented. Among the many famous models on display is a 1901 Fiat, an Itala, winner of the 1907 Peking-Paris rally, and a Cistalia 202 as well as a Ford Model-T and, of course, a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost from 1914.
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