Description
The Automobile Museum, known as MAUTO, stands on the left bank of the Po, in Turin, not far from the Lingotto. It is one of the oldest and most important car museums in the world: about 160 vehicles from 80 makes, from the steam carriage of 1769 to Michael Schumacher's Ferrari of 1996.
It works even for those who know nothing about engines: the cars are staged in more than thirty rooms with sets and installations that tell their story in their own time, on three floors, with lighting and a design by François Confino. Many of the makes no longer exist.
The route has three sections. It starts with The Automobile and the 20th Century, the history of the car. On the first floor is Man and the Automobile, the relationship between people and vehicles. The last, The Automobile and Design, deals with industrial design and how the shapes we know came about.
On the lower floor is the Garage, with the collection's cars that find no room in the halls, and the restoration school: it can be visited on request. The museum also has a library of about 7,000 books and a documentation center.
The building is worth a glance too: the long, convex stone facade seems to hang over a glass wall. In fact it is held up by a 60-ton steel beam and four pillars.
The idea was born in 1932, at a gathering of "automobile veterans," from two cofounders of FIAT and of the Automobile Club of Turin. Then the one who rolled up his sleeves was Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia, an artist, engineer and journalist in love with motors, who in 1933 managed to borrow about thirty cars for the Milan Fair.
Finding a home was not easy. The collection changed address several times and in 1938 ended up under the stands of a stadium. Only on November 3, 1960 did the building on the Po open, purpose-built.
In 2007 the museum closed for three years of work: it reopened on March 19, 2011, for the 150th anniversary of Italian unification, with almost double the space for exhibitions.
It works even for those who know nothing about engines: the cars are staged in more than thirty rooms with sets and installations that tell their story in their own time, on three floors, with lighting and a design by François Confino. Many of the makes no longer exist.
The route has three sections. It starts with The Automobile and the 20th Century, the history of the car. On the first floor is Man and the Automobile, the relationship between people and vehicles. The last, The Automobile and Design, deals with industrial design and how the shapes we know came about.
On the lower floor is the Garage, with the collection's cars that find no room in the halls, and the restoration school: it can be visited on request. The museum also has a library of about 7,000 books and a documentation center.
The building is worth a glance too: the long, convex stone facade seems to hang over a glass wall. In fact it is held up by a 60-ton steel beam and four pillars.
The idea was born in 1932, at a gathering of "automobile veterans," from two cofounders of FIAT and of the Automobile Club of Turin. Then the one who rolled up his sleeves was Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia, an artist, engineer and journalist in love with motors, who in 1933 managed to borrow about thirty cars for the Milan Fair.
Finding a home was not easy. The collection changed address several times and in 1938 ended up under the stands of a stadium. Only on November 3, 1960 did the building on the Po open, purpose-built.
In 2007 the museum closed for three years of work: it reopened on March 19, 2011, for the 150th anniversary of Italian unification, with almost double the space for exhibitions.