Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Turin

TURIN, a city of northern Italy, formerly the capital of Piedmont and the Sardinian states and now the chief town of a province in the compartimento of Piedmont, is situated in 45° 4′ 8″ N. lat. and 7° 48′ 22″ E. long, in the alluvial valley of the Po, just above the confluence of the Dora Riparia. By rail it is 54 miles from the Mount Cenis tunnel. The communal palace stands 788 feet above the sea. The Monte dei Cappuccini in the neighbourhood reaches 922 and La Superga 2405 feet. As viewed from the east the city stands out boldly against the Alps. Taken as a whole Turin may be described as a very modern city, with broad and regular streets, and large squares and public gardens. The cathedral of St John the Baptist is a cruciform Renaissance building dating from the close of the 15th century. The site was first occupied by a church erected, it is said, by the Lombard duke Agilulf (7th century). Be hind the high altar of the cathedral (from which it is separated by a glass screen) is the chapel of the Sudario or Sidone, built (1657-1694) by Guarini as a royal burial-place. The "sudario" from which it takes its name is asserted to be the shroud in which Joseph of Arimathea wrapped the body of Jesus. La Beata Vergine della Consolata, another of Guarini's works, has a tower which originally belonged to the church of St Andrew, founded by the monk Bruning in 1014, and attracts attention by Vincenzo Vela's beautiful kneeling statues of Queen Maria Teresa and Queen Maria Adelaide, as well as by the image of the Madonna, which has the credit of having warded off the cholera in 1835.

1. Madama palace. 2. Royal palace. 3. Cathedral. 4. University. 5. Carignano palace. 6. Di Citta palace. 7. Academy of science. 8. Academy of art. 9. Museum. 10. Arsenal.

Other churches of some note are San Felippo Neri (1672-1772), the dome of which fell in just as it was approaching completion under the hands of Guarini, and La Gran Madre de Dio, erected to commemorate the return of the royal family in 1814. Of the secular buildings the more interesting are the Madama palace, first erected by William of Montferrat in the close of the 13th century, and the extensive royal palace begun in the 17th century. The university, founded in 1400 by Lodovico di Acaja, has faculties of jurisprudence, medicine and surgery, literature and philosophy, and the mathematical, physical, and natural sciences. The number of students enrolled was 2132 in 1886. About 1876 the old university buildings erected in 1713 by the Genoese architect Ricca began to prove too small for their purpose; and at the present time (1887) new buildings, fitted more especially for the medical and scientific departments, are being erected. The area of the botanical gardens has also been extended and the observatory enlarged. The medical school derives advantage from the number of important hospitals in the city. The royal lunatic asylum can accommodate 980 patients. Turin has a prison on the cell system (672 cells) and a female penitentiary for 300, besides two houses of correction. The academy of sciences was founded in 1757. It occupies a building erected in 1687 by Guarini as a Jesuit college. The museum of antiquities and the picture gallery, of which it has the custody, are both of high interest the former for the local antiquities of Piedmont and Sardinia (notably from Industria) and for the Egyptian treasures collected by Donati and Drovetti, and the latter for its Van Dycks. There is a museum of zoology and mineralogy in the royal palace (another of Guarini's buildings), and the Castello palace contains the royal armoury (a collection made by Charles Albert in 1833) and the royal library with its rich manuscript collection and its 20,000 drawings, among which are sketches by Raphael, Michelangelo, and Da Vinci. The civic museum has a great variety of artistic and literary curiosities, among them a remarkable collection of autographs and the Lombard missal (1490). The Jewish synagogue, a striking and conspicuous building, erected in 1863 by Alessandro Antonelli, was purchased by the municipality in 1879 for a Renaissance museum. Other public institutions are the Albertine academy of the fine arts, the geographical society, and the Alpine club.

The industries of Turin and its suburbs give employment to 17,936 persons (13,305 men, 4631 women). Spinning-mills, weaving-factories, "vesta" factories (De Medici), breweries, and iron works are among the more extensive establishments. The commercial relations of the city are very extensive. It is the seat of the central offices of the North Italian Railway; and the central station is one of the most imposing buildings of its class in the country. The mean annual temperature at Turin (1866-84) is 53° Fahr. (Jan. 36°, July 74°), with a maximum of 96° and a minimum of 4°·l. Mists are frequent in the winter mornings, and to a less degree in autumn. Snow seldom falls in any great quantity, and on an average only on 7 days per annum. The rainfall, distributed over 100 days, reaches 32 inches December being 1-6 and April 4·3. Water of good quality is brought to the city from a distance of 15 miles. The population of Turin was only about 4200 in 1377 and 9000 in 1580; but by 1702 it was returned as 43,866. In 1848 it had risen to 136,849, and in 1861 to 204,715. In spite of the changes caused by the removal of the capital, first to Florence and then to Rome, the census of 1881 showed 233,124 inhabitants (commune 252.832).

Turin, Augusta Taurinorum, took its name from the Taurini or Taurisci, an ancient Ligurian people. The town is first alluded to (but not distinctly by name) in the year 218 B.C., when it was captured by Hannibal after a three days siege, being at that time a place of great strength. A colony of Roman veterans was introduced into the city, possibly after the battle of Philippi, or at any rate after the battle of Actium. It was assigned to the Stellatine tribe. Of Roman architecture scarcely any trace remains even in the oldest parts of Turin, but the arrangement of the streets of the old town recalls the alignments of the Roman military settlement. The Palaz/o delle due Torri, often designated the Porta Palatina, is probably part of a building of the 8th century. Turin continued to be a place of importance and military strength under numerous vicissitudes, till at length it was made the chief town of Piedmont by Amadeus, first duke of Savoy. Under Emmanuel Philibert it became the usual residence of the ducal family, and in 1515 the bishopric was raised to metropolitan rank by Leo X. Between 1536 and 1562 Turin was occupied by the French, and in 1630 it lost 8000 of its citizens by the plague. The French were masters once more from 1640 to 1706, and again from 1798 till 1814, when the Sardinian states were restored to the house of Savoy. Between 1859 and 1865 Turin was the capital of united Italy. Among the many men of mark born in Turin it is enough to mention Lagrange, Gioberti, Cesare Balbo, Cavour, Marochetti the sculptor, D Azeglio, and Sommellier.