Turin

I

Introduction

Turin (Italian Torino), city in northwestern Italy. It is the capital of Turin Province and of Piedmont Region (Piemonte) and lies at the confluence of the Po and Dora Riparia rivers. Hills rise on the far side of the Po, and the Alps are a short distance to the west of the city. Turin has a population (2007 estimate) of 900,569.

Turin is unusual among Italian cities in that it is laid out in a rectangular grid plan with long, wide streets. It has spacious gardens and squares and fine churches and palaces. Except for the Renaissance Cathedral of San Giovanni Battista, which was built in the late 15th century, most of the important public buildings in Turin date from the 17th and 18th centuries. Two of the most original Italian baroque architects, Guarino Guarini and Filippo Juvarra, spent much of their lives in Turin and left behind major examples of their work. Both designed churches and palaces. Guarini’s Chapel of the Holy Shroud (1667-1694) in the Turin cathedral houses one of the most famous relics in Europe, the Shroud of Turin. According to tradition, Christ was wrapped for burial in this shroud. Juvarra’s masterpiece is the Superga Basilica (1717-1731), a church built as a mausoleum for the kings of Sardinia on a hillside overlooking the city.

II

Industry

Italy’s largest automobile manufacturer, Fiat, has had its headquarters in Turin since 1899, and the design and manufacture of cars and automobile components still ranks as the city’s leading industry. Since the 1980s Turin has emerged as a center for high-tech and aerospace industries. During the early 2000s the tourism sector grew in anticipation of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin.

III

Cultural Institutions

Turin is a city of museums. Perhaps the city’s best-known collection is of ancient Egyptian art. The Academy of Science accommodates the Egyptian Museum and the Galleria Sabauda, with European paintings collected by the princes of Savoy. The Museo d’Arte Contemporanea opened in 1984 in the Rivoli Castle, just outside Turin. In town, the Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea features 19th- and 20th-century art, especially works by Italians. The art collection of former Fiat chairman Giovanni Agnelli and his wife, Marella, is housed in the Pinacoteca Agnelli in the former Fiat factory, Lingotto. Turin has hosted Artissima, an international contemporary art fair, at the Lingotto exhibition center annually since 1994.

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Various museums are housed in former palaces, and the royal residences of the house of Savoy, in and around Turin, were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997. The Armeria Reale in the former royal palace has an outstanding collection of weapons and armor. The Palazzo Madama, with a facade and grand staircase by Juvarra, now houses a museum of art from the 13th to the 16th centuries. The Palazzo Carignano, designed by Guarini, was the birthplace of Italy’s king Victor Emmanuel II in 1820 and has a museum of the Risorgimento, the Italian unification movement of the 19th century.

The tall, domed Mole Antonelliana (mole means an “imposing mass” and Antonelli was the architect) was originally intended as a synagogue, but the congregation lost interest as the building kept rising higher. Now a symbol of the city, the Mole, as it is known locally, houses the National Cinema Museum. (The emblem for the 2006 Winter Olympics was based on the silhouette of the Mole.) Turin also has museums of anthropology and ethnography, archaeology, the automobile, decorative arts, marionettes, and natural science.

The University of Turin, the city’s intellectual center, was founded in 1404. Dutch scholar Erasmus earned a doctorate in theology at the university in 1506. The city’s polytechnic institute trains students in architecture and engineering.

IV

History

Turin, originally the chief town of the Ligurian tribe of the Taurini, became the Roman military colony of Augusta Taurinorum in about the 1st century ad. It retains the grid layout of an ancient Roman camp. During the Germanic invasions that followed the fall of Rome, the settlement came under Goth, Lombard, and Frankish rule; various feudal lords later competed for control of it. In the late 13th century the house of Savoy claimed control of Turin. The counts of Savoy unified the region of Piedmont and in the 16th century made the city their capital.

Because of Piedmont’s strategic position between France and the rest of Italy, Turin was invaded several times, occupied by the French from 1536 to 1562, and besieged by French forces in 1640 and 1706. In 1720 the city became the capital of the kingdom of Sardinia, formed by the union of the duchy of Savoy and the island of Sardinia. As a consequence the 18th century was a period of reconstruction and growth for Turin. It was again held by France from 1800 to 1814, during the Napoleonic Wars, and afterward became prominent in the 19th-century movement to free Italy from foreign domination and unite it under the house of Savoy.

Turin served from 1861 to 1865 as the first national capital of a newly united Italy. The city thereafter experienced an industrial boom and rapid growth. Because of its industrial importance, Turin was heavily bombed during World War II (1939-1945). After the war the Fiat company helped the city rebuild. Turin experienced a renewal in the late 20th century as a center for high-tech industries.

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