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Visit Turin:
Arch. Baroque
Arch. 1800s-today
Turin Art
Turin cafés
Turin Design
Olympic Turin
Olympic Mountains
Turin - The Markets
Turin the nightlife
Get in and around
Turin food and wine
Turin travel guides
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San Lorenzo
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Turin - Torino grand tour
Walking is definitely the best way to feel the
pulse of Turin: stroll around the city parks, drop into its
historic cafés, take in the multiethnic quarters, enjoy fashion and
shopping, but don’t forget that Turin is magical too. So put on your walking
shoes and let your curiosity lead the way.
Architecture
Turin has a
Baroque face and an Art Nouveau face, it has its
Royal Residences, its bridges and 18km of arcades
lining the city center, but there are innovative installations too, set on
creating
a
brand new look.
A tour of
20th-century and
contemporary Turin combines a history lesson with an introduction to
some avant-garde infrastructures and works of art.
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Baroque Turin
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For centuries Turin lingered on the edge of the Ancient
Roman “checkerboard” layout legacy (even today a distinguishing feature of
the city center) and it entered a golden age in the 1600s, thanks to the
commitment of the Savoia family, who commissioned the greatest architects of
the time to enhance their capital. Great masters arrived in Turin: Ascanio
Vitozzi, Amedeo and Carlo di Castellamonte, Guarino Guarini and Filippo
Juvarra. The age of Baroque gave the city some of its greatest magnificence,
for instance the churches:
the Cathedral of San Giovanni Battista and
Duomo of Turin,
the church of San
Lorenzo, the
Consolata Sanctuary. Baroque can also be pinpointed as the style used
for several of the most famous streets and squares in the old center: Via
Po, Piazza Castello, Piazza San Carlo.
Capital of the Duchy of Savoy, the Kingdom of Sardinia and
then the first capital of Italy, the heart of the Torinese baroque system is the “Corona
delle Delizie”: a circuit of 14
Royal Residences – urban, suburban and some located in the rest of
Piedmont – declared “Patrimonio dell’Umanitŕ” in 1997.
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Palazzo Reale
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Palazzo Madama
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The entire region is starred with these magnificent
buildings that form a vast circuit. Stately palaces, fairytale castles and
immense parks recount a history of dukes and bellicose kings, lovers of art
and collectors, refined royal ladies who loved ballet and the theatre,
famous royal architects.
Places built for the purpose of entertainment and
leisure, splendid hunting lodges, palatial buildings at the heart of modern
Italy, the Royal Residences narrate the epic deeds of the House of Savoy,
from the grand dukes to the first kings of Italy.
In town we should remember:
Palazzo
Reale, the Royal Palace was the Savoia residence until 1865,
Palazzo Madama, the home of the
Museo di Arte
Antica and
Palazzo Carignano, location of the Subalpine Parliament and first
national Parliament, following the Unification of Italy.
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The
Palazzo
Reale is an impressive seventeenth-century building, which has been
altered and extended on various occasions down the centuries. It still bears
traces of the work of the most important artists active in Turin. Until 1865
it served as the residence of the Dukes of Savoy, the Kings of Sardinia and
the Kings of Italy.
It is possible to visit the royal apartments, lavishly
decorated and furnished from the seventeenth to the twentieth century to the
taste of the Savoy sovereigns. Clocks, porcelain, silver and furnishings,
some dating back to the seventeenth century, can be seen.
Out of town: the Stupinigi Hunting Lodge or
Palazzina di
Caccia, the palace at
Venaria Reale
and
Rivoli Castle, the latter designed by Juvarra in the 1700s, as a homage
to Versailles.
The Stupinigi Hunting Lodge, with its beautiful park and
extensive surrounding grounds, was built to plans by Filippo Juvarra.
Extraordinarily bold and original, numerous architects (Alfieri, Prunotto,
Bo) contributed to the group of buildings.
Today it houses the Museum of Art
and Furnishing, with its furniture, paintings and objects of great value
from the original furnishings of the Lodge, as well as from other Savoy
residences. It also houses temporary exhibitions.
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Stupinigi, a small hunting hut...
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Superga
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The Rivoli Castle is connected by a 20-kilometre direct road to the
Basilica of Superga,
also by the architect Juvara from Messina.
The Basilica of Superga was built to satisfy a vow made
by Vittorio Amedeo II made in front of the statue of the Mother of Graces
during a difficult time for the Savoy dynasty. In 1706 Turin was invaded by
the French troops of Luigi XIV who ambitiously hoped to transform Piedmont
into a French province, but found a fierce resistance on the part of the
Duke Vittorio Amedeo II.
The story claims that on the 2 September 1706 the Duke,
along with Prince Eugenio, climbed the hills of Superga to examine the
battlefield from a great height. The small church at the top of the hill
served the few parishioners of Superga. In front of the statue of the
Madonna, the Duke made a vow: if he obtained victory against the French, he
would erect in that place a large church in his honor.
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When descending the hill the two princes discussed their
plan of battle. On the morning of the 7th September at 10 o'clock the
fighting began. The battle was bloody and terrible but the Piedmontese army
had the better of their French counterparts who were defeated. Turin was
free and Piedmont maintained it's liberty.
The Duke Vittorio Amedeo II assumed the crown of Sicily
and then Sardinia and in 1717 laid the first stone of the glorious temple
vowed in the honour of the Madre del Salvadore - The Savour of Turin. It was
necessary to lower the hill by forty meters, and after having demolished the
existing church, sold to the King by the Council of Turin. The project to
build the Basilica was handed to the messinese architect Filippo Juvarra, who
produced an outstanding piece of architecture. The Basilica was opened to
the public after 14 years of work on the 1st November 1731.
Turin 1800s, modern and
contemporary Architecture >>>
Courtesy in part of
Comune di Torino
(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
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