Museums
Ancient History Museum
This museum is based on the collection of the Dukes of Savoy from the time of Emanuele Filiberto on, and has accumulated treasures over the years. It contains rare prehistoric and protohistoric exhibits from Piedmont and the Aosta Valley as well as Greek, Etruscan and Oriental exhibits.
Via XX Settembre, 88/c
Phone +39 011 52 11 106
Tue-Sun. 8.30 am-07.30 pm
www.museoantichita.it
Royal Armoury
This museum houses one of the richest collections of weapons in the world. It was opened by King Carlo Alberto in 1837 in a part of the tunnel that connected the Royal Palace to Palazzo Madama. It contains weapons and armours from the 12th to the 17th century, from the Risorgimento and from the time of the last king of Italy. The prestigious collections of weapons from the Middle Ages and the Oriental weapons are particularly interesting.
Piazza Castello, 191
Phone +39 011 51 84 358
www.artito.arti.beniculturali.it
GAM – Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art
GAM houses fifteen thousand works of art, including paintings, sculptures, installations, photograph, drawings and etching. There are eleven hundred permanent works. Massimo D’Azeglio, Fontenesi, Pellizza da Volpedo, Fattori and Rosso represent the 1800s, while there are work collections by Casorati, Morandi, De Pisis, Burri, Fontana and many others from the 1900s. There are also paintings by Modigliani, Balla, Severini, Boccioni, De Chirico, Dix, Ernst, Klee and Picabia. The contemporary art section covers Neo Dadaism, Pop Art and Italian works from the 1960s.
Via Magenta, 31
Phone +39 011 56 29 911
Tue-Sun. 9 am-7 pm
www.gamtorino.it
National History Museum of Artillery
This is the oldest museum in Turin. It was founded by Carlo Emanuele III in the Royal Arsenal, to be used by young students in the artillery school set up by Ignazio Bertola. It contains docimentation on the history of artillery and weapons from the 14th to the 20th century . The museum is housed inside the Cittadella.
Corso Galileo Ferrarsi, 0
Phone +39 011 56 03 40 61
Mon-Thu. 9-12.30 am; 2-4.15 pm; Fri. 9-11.45 am
www.artiglieria.org
Regional Museum of Natural Science
This museum was established in 1978 and is housed in the seventeenth century S. Giovanni Battista hospital. It contains numerous displays and also has a specialised library, which is open to the public.
Via Giolitti, 36
Phone +39 011 43 23 080 (library +39 011 43 23 071)
Every day 10 am-6 pm (opening only during exhibitions)
www.regione.piemonte.it/museoscienzenaturali
Civic Museum of Numismatic, Ethnography and Oriental Art
This museum contains collections of numismatics, sculptures and bas-reliefs from Asia (including material from terracotta tombs from the T’Kang period). There is also a collection of ethnography.
Via Bricherasio, 8
Phone +39 011 54 15 57
Tue-Sun. 9 am-7 pm
Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia National Automobile Museum
This is one of the leading museum of its kind in Europe. It documents the history of the car from its very beginnings to the present day. There are more than 150 original cars on view, as well as prints, models, leaflets and drawings. The museum also contains rare items and unique items from the world of car racing. It also houses temporary exhibitions, usually of figurative art.
Corso Unità d’Italia, 40
Phone +39 011 67 76 66
Tue-Sun. 9 am-7 pm
www.museoauto.it
Pietro Micca Civic Museum & Museum of the Seige of Turin in 1706
This museum bears the name of the patriot who stopped the French siege of the city in 1706. It is located under the Cittadella, which was built in the XVI century, and shows part of the network of tunnels built under the city itself. This is where Pietro Micca sacrified himself saving Turin. The museum was opened in 1961 and houses models and artefacts.
Via Guicciardini, 7/a
Phone +39 011 54 63 17
Tue-Sun. 9 am-7 pm
www.museopietromicca.it
Stupinigi Hunting Lodge Art and Furniture Museum
The lodge was designed by Juvarra as a complex of original – and even rather daring – buildings. It rivals the palace of Versailles in beauty. It houses the Art and Furniture Museum, with furniture and paintings from the lodge as well as from other residences of the House of Savoy.
Piazza Principe Amedeo, 7 – Stupinigi – Nichelino (TO)
Phone +39 011 35 81 220
Tuesday – Sunday
www.comune.torino.it
Museum of Decorative Arts Accorsi Foundation
Established in December 1999, as a result of the last will and testament of Pietro Accorsi, “king of antiquarians and antiquarian of kings”, in the building where he carried on his long and profitable “treasure hunting” activity. The exhibition consists of thirty rooms full of hundreds of precious objects: 18th century furniture (including a dopuble body and chest of drawers made by the great cabinet-maker of the period, Pietro Piffetti), paintings, miniatures, sculptures (including the splendid Madonna delle Nevi, a masterpiece of gothic art), tapestries, bronzes, carpets, Baccarat cut-glass ware, majolica-ware, porcelains and silver-ware.
Via Po, 55
Phone +39 011 81 29 116
Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun 9 am-8 pm; Thu 10 am-11 pm (for guided visits booking is recommended)
www.fondazioneaccorsi.it
Egyptian Museum
This museum houses is the largest collection of Egyptian artefacts after the museum in Cairo.It began with the acquisition of private collections at the beginnings of the 1800s, but it was not until 1824 that it assumed the status that it enjoys today. It was in tuis year that Carlo Felice acquired the collection of the archaeologist Drovetti. The museum, which has more recently acquired material from excavations carried out by Ernesto Schiaparelli, houses about thirty thousand pieces. The museum documents Egyptian history from the Palaeolithic age to the Coptic age with unique pieces and collections containing objets d’art, objects used in everyday life and funeral artefacts. The statues of Ramses II and Amenofi II are particularly noteworthy.
Via Accademia delle Scienze, 6
Phone +39 011 56 17 776
Tue-Wed-Thu-Fri 8.30 am-6.30 pm; Sat 8.30 am-11 pm; Sun 8.30 am-7.30 pm
www.museoegizio.it
The Duca degli Abruzzi National Museum of the Mountains
The museum was founded by the club Alpino Italiano in 1974 and was officially opened as the “Vendetta Alpina” on August 9th of that year in a simple wooden building. Telescopes were provided so that people could look at the Alps. This temporary wooden structure was dismantled in 1877 and the museum was set up inside the equipped to house the collections that now form the basis of the Museum, which is now considered to be the leading one of its kind on an international scale.
Monte dei Cappuccini – Via M.llo Giardino, 39
Phone +39 011 66 04 104
Every day 9 am-7 pm
www.museomontagna.org
The Gallery of the House of Savoy
This is one of the leading art galleries in Italy. It was established in 1832, with the permission of Carlo Alberto , on the basis of private art collections owned by the dukes and kings of Savoy. There are also exhibits showing the work of various Italian and European painters (Beato Angelico, Pollaioplo, Tintoretto, Poussin, Van Dyck and others).
Via Accademia delle Scienze, 6
Phone +39 011 54 74 40 – 56 41 755
Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sun 8.30 am-7.30 pm; Sat 8.30 am-11 pm
www.artito.arti.beniculturali.it
Art Gallery
The gallery was founded in the Palazzo dell’Accademia in 1837 for educational purposes. The nucleus is the bequest of the Mossi di Morano collection with its works from the 15th to the 18th century (Filippo Lippi, Martino Spanzotti…) and the donation made by Carlo Alberto in 1832 of sixty cartoons by Gaudenzio Ferrari and his school (unique in the world).
Via Accademia Albertina, 6
Phone +39 011 81 77 862
Tue-Sun 9 am-1 pm and 3-7 pm
www.accademialbertina.torino.it
Rivoli Castle – Modern Art Museum
Built on the ruins of an ancient medieval castle modified by Emanuele Filiberto to become the residence of the House of Savoy. In 1693 during the war against the French, the castle was set alight by Catinat’s troops and partly destroyed. To give the Rivoli residence back its sovereign dignity, Vittorio Amedeo II commissioned Filippo Juvarra to design a palace fit to take its place alongside the magnificence of the European courts. Only about a third of the 1718 design was ever actually built, leaving the most representative part of the palace incomplete, with the atrium and grand staircase. Restored by Bruno in 1984, the castle now houses the modern art museum featuring a packed calendar of exhibitions and displays.
Piazza Mafalda di Savoia-Rivoli (TO)
Phone +39 011 95 65 222
Tue-Fri 10 am-5 pm; Sat-Sun 10 am-7 pm
(10 am-10 pm on the first and third Saturdays of each month)
www.castellodirivoli.org
Royal Palace
This imposing 17th century building (1646-1660) was the residence of the Duke of Savoy, the Kings of Sardinia and the Kings of Italy until 1865. The Royal Palace has been modified many times and was richly decorated between the 17th and 19th centuries. The contribution made by the most important artist working in Turin can still be seen, for example, the façade designed in 1658 by A. Castellamonte and the “scissors stairway” by F. Juvarra. Visitors can admire the richly decorated and furnished royal apartments dating from the 17th to the 20th century, documenting the evolving tastes of the Savoy sovereigns.
P.tta Reale (P.zza Castello)
Phone +39 011 43 61 455
Tue-Sun 8.30 am-7.30 pm (morning dedicated to groups; guided tours every half an hour)
www.palazzomadamatorino.it
Carignano Palace
Baroque building constructed in about 1679 by G. Guarini. The cotto façade and the nineteenth century section were added later by G. Ferri. Seat of the Piedmontese Parliament and the first Italian Parliament from 1860 to 1865, it now houses the museum of the Italian Risorgimento. Alongside the numerous documents, accounts, pictures, statues, drawings and relics, particulary worthy of note are effective reconstruction of historic settings including King Carlo Alberto’s room at Oporto and the studio of Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour.
Via Accademia delle Scienze, 5
Phone +39 011 56 21 147
Tue-Sun 9 am-7 pm
www.artito.arti.beniculturali.it
Bricherasio Palace
Seventeenth century mansion and exhibition venue for the foundation of the same name. Hosts national and international exhibition, meetings and events.
Via Lagrange, 20
Phone +39 011 51 71 660
Mon 2-7 pm; Tue-Sun. 10 am-7 pm
www.palazzobricherasio.it
Cavour Palace
Splendid baroque building, erected in 1729 by G. Planteri, who also built Palazzo Saluzzo di Paesana. Here (in 1810) Camillo Benso Count of Cavour lived and died, founded and directed the “Il Risorgimento” newspaper. Recently restored, it now houses major exhibition.
Via Cavour, 8
Phone +39 011 53 06 90
Tue-Sun 10 am-7 pm; Thu 10 am-11 pm
Puppet Museum
This world in miniature, halfway between a game for children and the magic of the theatre-museum. It contains five thousand items, including puppets and 19th century costumes.
Via Santa Teresa, 5
Phone +39 011 53 02 38
Mon-Fri 9 am-1 pm; Sat 2-6 pm
Italian Photography Foundation
The foundation was set up in 1992 with the aim of focusing attention on historical and contemporary photography in Italy, and as a means of spreading the fame of Italian photographer abroad. The exhibition rooms house a packed programme of very interesting temporary exhibition. It organises the International Photography Biennal.
Via Avogadro, 4
Phone +39 011 54 65 94
Tue-Fri 3-7 pm; Sat-Sun 10 am-7 pm
www.comune.torino.it
Mole Antonelliana – Cinema Museum
This is the true symbol of Turin. The first stone of the building was laid in April 1863. It was designed by Alessandro Antonelli and was supposed to be the synagogue for the Jewish community in Turin –though, in fact, it was never used as such. The Mole is 167 metres high – it is in fact the highest brick building in the world. The events relating to the construction and history of the Mole fall into three periods: 1860-1900, actual building work; 1900-1961, completion and consolidation; 1976-2000, restoration of the monument. The exhibition area – 3200 square meters- is arranged vertically: from the entrance, located at level 0.00, visitors travel upwards on a steep helical staircase to level 5.00 dedicated to the fairy-tale mechanism of pre-cinema day. A system of aerial walkways and two new lifts will take visitors to the next level, dedicated to the “cinema machine”, and finally to level 25.00, with its suspended gallery overlooking the incredible centre void. The lifts also give access to a scenic terrace, while the central one lead to the “aerial temple”.
Via Montebello, 20
Phone +39 011 81 22 814
Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri e Sun 10 am-8 pm; Sat 11 am-11 pm
www.museonazionaledelcinema.org
Museum of the Holy Shroud
This museum, located in evocative premises beneath the Baroque Church of the Sacred Shroud, allows the visitors to follow an itinerary through interactive stations and multimedia system, finds and religious artefact – this gaining as complete as possible a picture of all various aspects involved in this relic (historical, scientific, devotional, artistic).
Via S. Domenico, 28
Phone +39 011 43 65 832
Wed-Mon 9-12 am; 3-7 pm (only guided tours evety half an hour)
www.sindone.org