Turin: Touristic information

Turin
Touristic information about the city, the provinces and localities

Turin history
Turin: Main sights
Turin: Notable natives
Localities in the province


Turin (Italian: Torino; Piedmontese: Turin; pronounced [ty?'i?]) is a major city as well as a business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the right bank of the Po River. The population of the city of Turin is 908,000 (2004 census); its agglomeration totals about 1.7 million inhabitants, while its metropolitan area has a population of 2.2 million inhabitants.[2] Turin is well-known as the home of the Shroud of Turin and Juventus FC, headquarters of Fiat and Lancia automobile manufacturers and host of the 2006 Winter Olympics. It has been the capital of the Duchy of Savoy since 1563, then of the Kingdom of Savoy and finally the first capital of a unified Italy.[3]

Turin history

Roman times
In the first century BC (probably 28 BC), the Romans created a military camp (Castra Taurinorum), later dedicated to Augustus (Augusta Taurinorum). The typical Roman street grid can still be seen in the modern city. Turin reached about 5,000 inhabitants at the time, all living inside the high walls.

Middle Ages
After the fall of the Roman empire the city was conquered by the Lombards, then the Franks of Charlemagne (773); in the 940s the Contea di Torino (or countship) was founded, until 1050 held by the Arudinic dynasty and then, after the marriage of Adelaide of Susa with Humbert Biancamano's son Otto, by the family of the Counts of Savoy. While the dignity of count was held by the Bishop as count of Turin (1092-1130 and 1136-1191) it was ruled as a prince-bishopric by the Bishops. In 1230-1235 it was a lordship under the Marquess of Montferrat, styled Lord of Turin. At the end of the thirteenth century, when it was annexed to the Duchy of Savoy, the city already had 20,000 inhabitants. Many of the gardens and palaces were built in the fifteenth century when the city was redesigned. The University was also founded during this period.

16-18th century
Emanuele Filiberto (Iron Head) made Turin the capital of the Duchy of Savoy in 1563. Piazza Reale, today named Piazza San Carlo and Via Nuova, today called Via Roma were added with the first enlargement of the walls, in the first half of the XVII century; in the same period the Royal palace (Palazzo Reale) was built. In the second half of that century, a second enlargement of the walls was planned and executed, with the building of the arcaded Via Po, connecting diagonally through the regular street grid Piazza Castello with the bridge on the Po. In 1706, during the Battle of Turin, the French besieged the city for 117 days without conquering it. After the subsequent Treaty of Utrecht, the Kingdom of Sardinia was annexed to the Duchy of Savoy and the architect Filippo Juvarra began a major redesign of the city. Now the capital of a European kingdom, Turin had about 90,000 inhabitants at the time.

19th century
In the nineteenth century, after brief occupation by Napoleon, the city began to actively pursue the unification of Italy. In 1871, the Fréjus Tunnel was opened, making Turin an important communication node. The city now had 250,000 inhabitants. The Museo Egizio, the Mole Antonelliana, the Gran Madre church and Vittorio Veneto square were built in this period.
View over Turin and Alps.In 1861, Turin became the capital of the newly proclaimed United Italy. In 1865 the capital was moved to Florence. (Since 8 July 1871, the capital has been Rome.) Turin reacted to the loss of importance by beginning a rapid industrialisation: in 1899 Fiat was founded and Lancia in 1906. The Universal Exposition held in Turin in 1902 is often considered the pinnacle of Art Nouveau design, and the city hosted the Exposition again in 1911. By this time, Turin had grown to 430,000 inhabitants.

20th century
After World War I, conflicts between workers and industrialists began. The first strikes took place and in 1920 the Lingotto factory was occupied.
After World War II, Turin was rapidly rebuilt and its industries greatly developed, which caused waves of immigration, largely from the southern regions of Italy. The population reached 1 million in 1960 and peaked at 1.5 million in 1975. In the 1980s, the first industrial crisis hit the city and its population began to decline (and continues to, while the metropolitan area grows). The 2005 population was 908,000.

Turin: Main sights

The Palatine Towers nowadays, Archaeological Park.
The Mole Antonelliana.
The Basilica di Superga near Turin.
The façade of Palazzo Carignano.
The Gran Madre Church from the Mole Antonelliana.
The best known building of the city is the Mole Antonelliana, whose construction began in 1863 and which today houses the National Cinema Museum.
The Palatine Towers are among the best preserved Roman remains in northern Italy.
The Cathedral of St John the Baptist houses the Shroud of Turin, an old linen cloth with an imprint of a man, which is believed by many to be the cloth that covered Jesus in his grave.
Nearby is the former royal residence: the seventeenth-century Palazzo Reale, built for Madama Reale Christine Marie of France.
The Museo Egizio has the most important collection of Egyptian antiquities in the world after the Cairo Museum.
Turin has buildings of great historical and architectural interest: the Savoy Residences. In addition to the Royal Palace (the official residence of the Savoys until 1865) there are many palaces, residences and castles in the city centre and in the surrounding towns. Turin is home to Palazzo Chiablese, the Royal Armoury, the Royal Library, Palazzo Madama, Palazzo Carignano, Villa della Regina, and the Valentino Castle.
The complex of the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy in Turin and in the nearby cities of Rivoli, Moncalieri, Venaria Reale, Agliè, Racconigi, Stupinigi, Pollenzo and Govone was declared in 1997 a World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.
Its gardens include the Orto Botanico dell'Università di Torino, a historic botanical garden.
In the hills overlooking the city is the basilica church of Superga, providing a view of Turin against a backdrop of the snow-capped Alps. The basilica holds the tombs of many of the dukes of Savoy, as well as many of the kings of Sardinia. Superga can be reached by means of the Superga Rack Railway from the suburb of Sassi.

Turin: Notable natives

Giovanni Agnelli (1866-1945), founder of Fiat.
Edoardo Agnelli (1892-1935) industrialist, director of FIAT and Juventus F.C.'s president.
Gianni Agnelli (1921-2003), influential chairman, director of FIAT and Juventus F.C.'s president.
Umberto Agnelli (1934-2004) industrialist, director of FIAT and Juventus F.C.'s president.
Giuliano Amato (born 1938), politician, former Prime Minister of Italy.
Amedeo Avogadro (1776-1856), physicist.
Alessandro Baricco (born 1958), writer.
Fred Buscaglione (1921-1960), singer and songwriter.
Giuseppe Marc'Antonio Baretti (1719-1789), critic.
Camillo Benso, count of Cavour, politician (Italian unification).
Roberto Bettega, former footballer and manager.
Norberto Bobbio (1909-2004), historian and philosopher.
Giampiero Boniperti, former footballer and Juventus F.C.'s president.
Gianpiero Combi (1902-1956), former footballer. 1934 World Cup champion.
Arturo Brachetti
Carla Bruni (born 1968), singer, model and wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Pierre Paul Caffarel (1795-1850), founder of the first chocolate factory in the world.
Antonio Benedetto Carpano (1764-1815), inventor of vermouth and apéritif.
Leo Chiosso (1920-2006), lyricist, songwriter with Fred Buscaglione.
Robert Fano (1917-2004), engineer.
Galileo Ferraris (1847-1897), physicist and electrical engineer.
Piero Gobetti (1901-1926), intellectual.
Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736-1813), mathematician.
Vincenzo Lancia (1881-1937), sportsman and businessman, founder of Lancia.
Luigi Lavazza (1859-1949), inventor and coffee businessman.
Carlo Levi (1902-1975), painter and writer.
Primo Levi (1919-1987), chemist, philosopher, Holocaust survivor and writer.
Salvador Edward Luria (1912-1991), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Alessandro Martini (1812-1905), vermouth businessman.
Mau Mau (formed 1991), rock band.
Davide Rossi (1970) violinist, string arranger (Goldfrapp, Coldplay).
Carlo Mollino (1905-1973), architect and designer.
Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Adriano Olivetti (1901-1960), businessman.
Carlo Parola (1921-2000), former footballer. He's considered to be one of the inventors of the bicycle kick in Italy.
Giuseppe Peano (1858-1932), mathematician.
Aurelio Peccei (1908-1984), founder of the Club of Rome.
Gabry Ponte, DJ member of Eiffel 65.
Vittorio Pozzo (1886-1968), former Italian national football team coach, 1934 and 1938 FIFA World Cup winner.
Tullio Regge (born 1931), physicist
Piero Sraffa (1898-1983), economist.
Subsonica (formed 1996), rock band.
Massimo Taparelli, marquis d'Azeglio (1798-1866), statesman, novelist and painter.
Umberto Tozzi (1952), singer.
Gianni Vattimo (1936), philosopher.
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy (1820-1878), King of Piedmont and the first King of the united Italy.

Same informations in this page for Turin are based on the site www.wikipedia.org respecting the GNU Free Documentation License.

Turin: other to visit