Art Nouveau
in Turin
The tour sets out from piazza Castello. Take via Pietro Micca, named after
the hero of the Battle of Turin (1706), which joins piazza Castello to piazza
Solferino. It is lined by porticoes on the right and when it was built, in the
late nineteenth century, it was known as La Diagonale, because it was the first
street in the old centre to break the original Roman perpendicular groundplan.
To the right, you see the lanes of the old centre with their palaces and courtyards,
Carlo Ceppi's Casa Bellia, adorned with bow windows and turrets, and houses
with Art Nouveau and eclectic decorations.
To the left are via XX Settembre and via Arsenale, the bank district, and the
Church of San Tommaso, one of the oldest in the city, which had to be reduced
in size when La Diagonale was being built to allow the new street to follow a
perfectly straight line.
You now enter Piazza Solferino, named after the battle won by Napoleon
III during the second War of Independence. This was once the site for a timber
market.
In the square today you find the Fontana delle 4 stagioni, also known as Fontana
Angelica, built by Giovanni Riva in 1930, Panizza's Teatro Alfieri,
built in 1857 and originally used for equestrian events, and Balzico's equestrian
Monument of Fernando Duca di Genova, son of Carlo Alberto (1887). The horse is
depicted very realistically as it slumps to the ground out of sheer fatigue during
the Battle of La Bicocca, near Novara, at the end of the first, disastrous War
of Independence. It was in one of the offices that overlook the square that the
daily newspaper "La Stampa" was founded.
Continue along via Cernaia, named after a river in Crimea. To the right, in the
Giardini Lamarmora, stands the statue of Generale Lamarmora (Cassano, 1867), founder
of the "bersaglieri".
A little further on, stands the Mastio della Cittadella. Shortly after
his arrival in Turin, Emanuele Filiberto commissioned the military engineer Francesco
Paciotto da Urbino to build a large star-shaped fortress, which was to be considered
one of the finest defence systems in Europe, with kilometres of underground tunnels.
The citadel played a vital role in the defence of the city. All that remains today
are the Mastio, which houses the Museo Nazionale dell'Artiglieria, and long sections
of the underground tunnels (Museo Pietro Micca). In front of the Citadel is a
canon, which possibly came from the Battle of Lepanto, and the Statue of Pietro
Micca, the hero who prevented the Sun King's French army from invading the city
via the underground tunnels during the siege of Turin in 1706.
After the Caserma Cernaia, which houses a training school for "Carabinieri",
you come to the Station of Porta Susa, whose name conjures up the Porta Segusina,
a Roman gate which stood not far from here at the end of the Decumanus Maximus.
On the square in front a small monument by Ceragioli and Biscarra is devoted to
Ascanio Sobrero, the inventor of nitro-glycerine.
You now turn into corso San Martino. Continue as far as piazza Statuto,
whose name commemorates Carlo Alberto's granting, on March 4 1848, of the Statute
which made Piedmont the first region in Italy to have a parliament of its own.
The square was designed by Bollati with porticoes on three sides.
The monument at the centre of the square commemorates the piercing of the Fréjus
railway tunnel between Italy and France at the time of Cavour and Napoleon III.
It was made with the collaboration of students at the Accademia Albertina and
the winged spirit at the top was sculpted by Belli.
A small obelisk, half-hidden among the trees, shows the one end of the
geodetic base for the measurement of the latitude of Turin, which the mathematician
Cesare Beccaria identified at this point. In Rivoli another obelisk marks the
site of the other end.
Starting from piazza Statuto is corso Francia, a major thoroughfare which
runs as far as the Susa Valley. It was originally designed for Vittorio Amedeo
II by Garove in 1711 to join Rivoli with Palazzo Reale, but it was actually built
only during the reign of Vittorio Emanuele II.
The first section crosses the Cit Turin quarter with its characteristic Art
Nouveau houses (the style was predominant in building work at the start of
the century). In the district there are also many family villas and rent houses.
At corso Francia 8 stands Villino Raby, named after its owners, and, at
the junction with via Principi d'Acaja, Casa La Fleur, named after the
wife of Piero Fenoglio, who built the house for himself and his family.
At corso Francia 23 stands Palazzo della Vittoria, built by Carrera in
1925. It is characterised by a large Gothic-like doorway flanked by two winged
dragons.
Many other Art Nouveau houses can be admired in side streets such as via Beaumont,
via Piffetti and via Bagetti, in the quadrilateral of via Bossi,
via Le Chiuse, via Goffredo Casalis and via Cibrario and in other
areas of the city. At the start of the century, in fact, Turin was known as
the "capital of Art Nouveau".