1900s Turin
Time flies, but Turin keeps pace with it. In the years following the Unification, even after the capital was transferred to Florence, the city continued to define the industrial side of its identity in no uncertain terms.
This process reached its peak in 1899 with the establishment of FIAT – Italian automotive factory of Turin – by Senator Giovanni Agnelli (grandfather of Giovanni Agnelli, “L’avvocato” or “The Lawyer”) and several others. The young Agnelli came to the helm of FIAT In 1966 and sailed it to international leadership. The same sort of success was achieved by another historic name on the Torinese automotive industry scenario: Lancia.
From the early 1900s, industrial Turin attracted men and women living in the Piedmontese and Italian countryside, who were in search of employment. As the so-called “social question” emerged, the city had to deal with new problems: integration, development, social security. Turin confirmed its belief in social solidarity, especially with religious institutions like the Piccola Casa della Divina Provvidenza, better known as the Cottolengo. Religious solidarity left its mark on the history of the last century and today continues, thanks to institutions like Gruppo Abele and Sermig.
Turin was also a hive of zealous cultural activity. It was where Luigi Einaudi taught, where Antonio Gramsci and Piero Gobetti studied. Professor Augusto Monti’s high school, the Liceo Classico d’Azeglio, brought forth a generation of students destined to affect intellectual evolution from the 1930s to the present day: writers like Cesare Pavese and Primo Levi, the musicologist Massimo Mila, the philosopher Norberto Bobbio. Another student was Giulio Einaudi, founder of the Einaudi publishing house, one of the points of reference for Italian antifascist culture.
This is where Italian cinema was born and developed. In 1914 the director Giovanni Pastrone made “Cabiria”, based on a story by Gabriele D’Annunzio: it was the first full-length feature film distributed worldwide. Turin was where important film studios were established: Ambrosio, Aquila, Itala Film. The Fert studios – now the Virtual Reality & Multi Media Park technology park – were some of the busiest and best-equipped film studios, especially at the turn of the century and from 1940 to 1955.
Radio and TV history also began in Turin, where EIAR (predecessor to Italian state broadcasting network, RAI) had its first premises. Turin created characters like Paulista and the Caballero Misterioso. Who? Just some of the TV characters that animated many advertising spots on Carosello, the successful TV show broadcast from 1957 to 1977. Who created them? Armando Testa, a legendary figure in Italian advertising. Two historic Torinese brands – Martini&Rossi and Lavazza – owe their fortunes to the Testa agency’s advertising campaigns.
