DON'T BE NOSY Turin's mysteries

Turin, a crossing point for many peoples and secrets from ancient times, surrounded by shiny rivers and custodian of magic. A very rich symbology and many mysteries are hidden within the network of the city streets.

The mystery of its foundation
Turin's foundation is probably linked to the ancient Egyptians.The legend says Phaethon, son of Isis, started the construction of the city and erected a place of worship dedicated to the god Api, a rural divinity, symbol of reproduction and generation, having the features of a bull. Other ancient legends link the city's origin to the Celts or to the Orient, which has always been "mysterious". For the record, Augusta Taurinorum was founded by the Romans at the crossing of two rivers, the Po and the Dora, that together form "a ring of shimmering water" around the city. And there are many symbolic interpretations, too. The Po might represent the Sun, the male part, and the Dora the Moon, the female counterpart. Moreover, while building the city, the Romans followed certain magical rules which prescribed that the 4 gates should be opened in correspondence with the cardinal points while the main street should follow the ascending route of the Sun in the sky. Turin is situated on the 45th parallel, marked by the obelisk with an astrolabe on its top that stands out in piazza Statuto (there is asimilar one 11 km away, at the end of corso Francia).

The Holy Shroud
Turin preserves one of the most important symbols of faith: the Holy Shroud.
It's 437 cm. in length and 111 cm. in width and, according to tradition, it is the sheet that was used to wrap Jesus' body after his crucifixion. However, many are sceptical and believe it to be simply a sheet bearing the body imprint of a man 1.77 m. in height, who was tortured and crucified a long time ago. Currently, the "sacred linen" is kept inside Turin's Cathedral, the Church of Saint John,where it was brought in 1578, having survived the fire of the church where it was kept in Chambery (France) and after being carefully repaired by the Clarisse nuns.
The Shroud has risked being damaged here, too: another fire spread during the night between April 11th and 12th 1997, but it was saved in time by the firemen. Thus it was twice threatened by fire, but never destroyed. By the way, an esoteric theory says that within the Shroud there are the four elements composing the Universe: Earth, Fire,Air and Water.The dominating element is believed to be Fire,symbol of Christ himself. Thus a fire will never be able to destroy it. Kept in an air-conditioned showcase, the cloth is often stretched out and exhibited inside the Cathedral, during the so called "ostensions", one of which will be held in 2010.

All or none.
According to the esoteric tradition, the person who owns one of Christ's holy relics owns them all. Thus the Shroud's presence in Turin would imply that the city also holds the other symbols of the Christian faith.
So the presence of the Shroud in Turin would grant the presence of other symbols of Christianity in the city.
Hence the idea that the Holy Graal, the chalice from which Jesus drank during the Last Supper and in which his blood was preserved after his crucifixion, is kept in the church of Gran Madre di Dio (God's Great Mother), at the foot of the hills.
The two statues at the entrance, representing Faith and Religion, might be the proof. One holds a goblet representing the Holy Graal, the other seems to stare into space.
According to a research carried out by Turin's Polytechnic, it is meant to indicate a street, a route that leads straight to Palazzo di Città (the Town Hall), where an esoteric belief states the Graal lies.
And finally... the vaults of the Basilica of Maria Ausiliatrice (foto) are believed to contain a cross made with the wood used for Jesus' cross.

White Magic
Turin represents one of the three world vertexes of the white magic triangle, together with Prague and Lyon.
Apparently, the crucial point is piazza Castello: the epicentre of positive energy is precisely where the Royal Palace lies, in correspondence with the fountain of the Tritons.
The gates of the Palace, with on each side the equestrian statues of the two Dioscuri (foto), the twin brothers Castor and Pollux, are believed to mark the border between the holy and the evil parts of the city.
The white forces are mainly focused at the centre of the gates, which in the past were used to exhibit the Holy Shroud, and in the Mole Antonelliana (foto). The latter would seem to radiate the beneficial energies absorbed from underground on the entire city.
Still on white magic, piazza Solferino deserves to be seen for its Angelic Fountain. Composed of four groups of statues placed on a granite base, it was built according to the Masonic rules. At each side two female groups representing Spring and Summer; at the centre, in a higher position, two male figures,Autumn and Winter, pour water from a jug.The two jugs represent the astrological signs of Aquarius and Aries, under which Italy lies. The female figures represent the two aspects of Love: sacred and profane. Finally, the water poured is meant to represent knowledge: men must drink from it to progress.
And last but not least the Egyptian Museum. According to some famous occultists, a few relics have a positive influence while others have a negative one. So the museum might be the scene of the everlasting battle between good and evil.
Luckily the objects with a positive influence are more numerous than the evil ones!

Black Magic
Turin, London and San Francisco compose the feared black magic triangle. The sites making our city a renowned centre of black magic are many and they stem from different legends and cultures.
Piazza Statuto is the city's "black heart". First of all because it is in the west, position considered negatively because it is where the sun sets. Moreover, in this area, dating back to Roman times, there was the "vallis occisorum", that is the necropolis. Exactly in piazza Statuto there used to be the gallows, that the French moved to the crossroads between corso Regina Margherita and via Cigna, nowadays called "'rondò d'la forca" (the gallows roundabout). It is quite likely that the bodies of the executed are still underneath corso Francia and via Cibrario. At a closer look, at the centre of the small garden of the square there is a manhole... for people who get easily frightened this is the Door to Hell, for matter-of-fact people it leads to the centre of the city sewers.
At the entrance of the square is the Frejus Fountain (foto), built in memory of the people who died while digging the Frejus tunnel.
Strangely, it faces via Garibaldi, but neither corso Francia nor the tunnel. According to tradition the angel on the obelisk is actually Lucifer.
In via Bonelli, near piazza Statuto, Turin's executioner used to live. Always dressed in black, he used to travel around the region carrying a bag with the "tools of his trade" and a price list for all the possible ways in which he could execute. He also had to punish those who had gone bankrupt: after condemnation, they would be beaten repeatedly on a wooden bench, about 10 cm high, placed near via Corte d'Appello, until the wood gave way.
The Misericordia church, in via Barbaroux, has passed to the judgement of history the following horrific traditions: in glass show cases there are the registers of the convicted, some black hoods, the "bicchierino", the small glass used for the condemned person's last drink, and the crucifix. This is the place where those to be executed were given their final blessing and burial.
And since Turin has everything, starting from the 1700s various types of sects began to appear, some esoteric, some initiatory: from the Carbonari movement, the Giovine Italia and the Masonry, to real magical associations, they all met in secret places. An infinite and not entirely explored series of passages exists underground, for example the alchemic caves, discovered under Palazzo Madama, where the Savoy "scientists" - asked to find the Philosopher's stone that could transform "vile metal into gold" - used to work. The entrance was from the crypt of the SS. Annunziata Church and from the underground tunnels of the Palace. Thanks to the protection they were granted by their "royal Lady", the alchemists were able to carry out their researches undisturbed and became an irresistible attraction for clarvoyants and well-known wise men like Paracelsus.
In 1556 the infallible thaumaturge and physician Nostradamus arrived in Turin, called to court by Duke Emanuele Filiberto to cure his wife Margherita di Valois from sterility. He was successful and Carlo Emanuele, the heir, was born, so Nostradamus was appointed court "magician". He lived a few hundred metres from piazza Statuto, in via Michele Lessona, in a villa called Domus Morozzo.There used to be a memorial plate here, on which the following enigmatic words were engraved by the magician himself: "Nostradamus lived in this place, where there are Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. My name is Victory, those who honour me will have glory, those who despise me will have ruin".
The Savoys, like every respectable royal family, had their mysterious apparitions. The ghost of Duchess Maria Cristina of France still walks around the palace on certain nights: apparently she roams around the luxurious salons, she lightly touches the walls nostalgically whilst remembering her life! She was the extremely young wife of Vittorio Amedeo I. She was left a widow when she was still young and in 1637 she became regent in place of her son Carlo Emanuele II. So much for official history... Rumours say that the beautiful Lady used to "get easily rid" of her lovers, by sheer cincidence they would "get lost" in the underground passages or slip "accidentally" into the Po river. These men now are ghosts and return at night to wander in the gardens around the castle and the many city arcades.
And, last but not least,the magnificent hills of Turin: apparently, strange and obscure "congresses" used to take place here, hidden by the trees and greenery. The richest citizens,bored by their lives and needing a pastime, used to meet and tell each other terrifying stories. It is not by coincidence that the horror films of the 70s and 80s were all set in the Piedmontese capital and within its villas on the hills...The most famous one,"Profondo rosso" (Deep Red), is by Dario Argento. Dreadful!

Bibliography
Morena Poltronieri, Ernesto Fazioli: Misteri di Torino
Centini Massimo, Il diavolo sotto la Mole
Rossotti Renzo, Guida insolita ai misteri, ai segreti, alle leggende a alle curiosità di Torino
Alessandra Luciano, I magici misteri di Torino
Giuditta Dembech, I misteri di Torino

Agenzia Somewhere organises guided tours of magical Turin
tel. 011/6680580
www.somewhere.it