Description
Piazza Statuto is a large, elongated, arcaded square west of the center of Turin, near Porta Susa: the last of the Risorgimento squares, with elegant neoclassical buildings and a monument that divides Turin residents between reason and legend.
It was built after the Unification of Italy, starting in 1863, by a London construction company to a design by Giuseppe Bollati. The bet was that Turin would remain the capital, because taking Rome from the pope seemed difficult: many homes were needed for officials and soldiers.
Instead the capital moved to Florence. In September 1864 the riots of the Turin people, with casualties in Piazza San Carlo as well, also took place in this newly born square. The city completed the buildings and then sold them off at auction. The square was named after the Albertine Statute, the constitution written by Charles Albert.
At the center of the gardens stands the monument to the Fréjus tunnel, unveiled in 1879: a pyramid of huge boulders taken from the very excavation of the railway tunnel, with fallen Titans and a winged Genius at the top. An allegory of the triumph of reason over brute force.
The winged Genius has an inverted five-pointed star on its head, which is why popular tradition sees none other than Lucifer in it. Others think the monument commemorates the sufferings of the miners who dug the tunnel.
A little to the west, in a flower bed, a small obelisk topped with an astrolabe is the Beccaria spire, erected in 1808 to commemorate a calculation made in 1760 of the length of a stretch of meridian. A twin obelisk stands at the end of Corso Francia, in Rivoli.
On the west side, at the start of Corso Francia, the BBPR Tower stands out, designed in 1959 by the Milanese studio and opened in 1961: the only example in the city of post-rationalist architecture of the Milanese school. Under its arcades a plaque commemorates nine partisans shot on October 12, 1944.
In the legends of "magical Turin," the square is one of the vertices of the "black magic triangle," with London and San Francisco. The name of the nearby Valdocco district is said to come from the Latin "valle occisorum": the Romans used this area outside the walls as a necropolis and perhaps for executions.
A manhole at the center, next to the fountain, leads to the main junction of the city's sewers: this too has fueled stories about one of the supposed alchemical caves. Some guided tours include the square among their main stops.
Piazza Statuto has often been a place of protest. From July 6 to 10, 1962 tens of thousands of Fiat and Lancia workers poured into it against the separate agreement signed by the UIL union, in one of the first great strikes of the postwar period, with prolonged clashes with the police.
Don't miss
• The monument to the Fréjus tunnel.
• The Beccaria spire.
• The BBPR Tower.
Did you know?
• Corso Beccaria, near the obelisk, was for a long time the shortest corso in Turin: just 100 meters.
• In 1895 the tram station for Rivoli was torn down to widen the square toward the west.
It was built after the Unification of Italy, starting in 1863, by a London construction company to a design by Giuseppe Bollati. The bet was that Turin would remain the capital, because taking Rome from the pope seemed difficult: many homes were needed for officials and soldiers.
Instead the capital moved to Florence. In September 1864 the riots of the Turin people, with casualties in Piazza San Carlo as well, also took place in this newly born square. The city completed the buildings and then sold them off at auction. The square was named after the Albertine Statute, the constitution written by Charles Albert.
At the center of the gardens stands the monument to the Fréjus tunnel, unveiled in 1879: a pyramid of huge boulders taken from the very excavation of the railway tunnel, with fallen Titans and a winged Genius at the top. An allegory of the triumph of reason over brute force.
The winged Genius has an inverted five-pointed star on its head, which is why popular tradition sees none other than Lucifer in it. Others think the monument commemorates the sufferings of the miners who dug the tunnel.
A little to the west, in a flower bed, a small obelisk topped with an astrolabe is the Beccaria spire, erected in 1808 to commemorate a calculation made in 1760 of the length of a stretch of meridian. A twin obelisk stands at the end of Corso Francia, in Rivoli.
On the west side, at the start of Corso Francia, the BBPR Tower stands out, designed in 1959 by the Milanese studio and opened in 1961: the only example in the city of post-rationalist architecture of the Milanese school. Under its arcades a plaque commemorates nine partisans shot on October 12, 1944.
In the legends of "magical Turin," the square is one of the vertices of the "black magic triangle," with London and San Francisco. The name of the nearby Valdocco district is said to come from the Latin "valle occisorum": the Romans used this area outside the walls as a necropolis and perhaps for executions.
A manhole at the center, next to the fountain, leads to the main junction of the city's sewers: this too has fueled stories about one of the supposed alchemical caves. Some guided tours include the square among their main stops.
Piazza Statuto has often been a place of protest. From July 6 to 10, 1962 tens of thousands of Fiat and Lancia workers poured into it against the separate agreement signed by the UIL union, in one of the first great strikes of the postwar period, with prolonged clashes with the police.
Don't miss
• The monument to the Fréjus tunnel.
• The Beccaria spire.
• The BBPR Tower.
Did you know?
• Corso Beccaria, near the obelisk, was for a long time the shortest corso in Turin: just 100 meters.
• In 1895 the tram station for Rivoli was torn down to widen the square toward the west.