(Torino), a city in northwestern Italy; principal city of the region of Piedmont and capital of Turin Province.
Turin is the fourth largest city in Italy, after Rome, Milan, and Naples, with a population of 1.2 million (1974). The city is located at the influx of the Dora Riparia into the Po River in the Po-Venetian Plain and lies in the foothills of the Western Alps on the approaches to the Alpine passes. Turin’s geographic location has enabled it to become an important transportation junction and the second largest industrial center in Italy (after Milan), as well as a trade and financial center.
Heavy industry predominates in the city and adjacent suburbs, such as Mirafiori. The enterprises of the Fiat concern lead Turin’s heavy industry: about one-half of the city’s indusrial workers are employed by Fiat. The nucleus of the entire complex consists of the automotive plants, which account for 80 percent of Italy’s total production of motor vehicles. Fiat also owns metallurgical, aviation, railroad-car, and tractor plants and produces marine engines. The second largest industrial complex in Turin is the Riv firm, which produces ball bearings and ball-bearing manufacturing equipment. Turin also has many machine-building plants belonging to other firms, enterprises producing rubber and cable, a chemical industry that produces sulfuric acid, dyes, and chemical fibers, and a pharmaceutical industry. Older sectors of Turin’s industry still remain important, including textiles, garment making, printing, and food processing, which includes the wine-growing and confectionery industries. Turin is the site of a university founded in the 15th century.
In antiquity, Turin was a settlement of the Taurini. Under the emperor Augustus, it was the Roman colony of Augusta Tauri-norum. In the sixth and seventh centuries it was the center of a duchy of Langobardia. At the end of the eighth century Turin became part of the Carolingian state; it was the principal city of a county and then of a marquessate. A commune was established in the 12th century. Along with other Lombard states struggling for independence, Turin joined the Lombard League in 1226. In the 13th century the city became part of Savoy. Turin was occupied by French troops from 1536 to 1562, and in 1563 it became the capital of the duchy of Savoy.
From 1720 to 1860 Turin was, with interruptions, the capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia; from 1861 to 1865 it was the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. Turin was one of the centers of the bourgeois-democratic and national liberation movements during the bourgeois revolutions of 1821 and 1848–49. The rapid economic growth of Turin began in the 19th century. The city became an important center of the workers’ movement and was the site of an antiwar strike in 1915, the Uprising of Turin in 1917, and other protests. In 1919 the Marxist group Ordine Nuovo was formed in Turin; it played a major role in founding the Italian Communist Party in 1921. During the Nazi occupation from 1943 to 1945, Turin was a center of the resistance movement. The city was liberated by Italian partisans in April 1945.
N. K. KISOVSKAIA
Turin’s rectilinear street plan is based on the layout of an ancient Roman military camp. The city’s architectural monuments include an ancient Roman theater and the Palatine Gate. Turin’s Renaissance cathedral, which was designed by Meo del Caprino, G. Guarini, and F. Juvarra, was begun in 1490 and completed in the 18th century. The baroque structures of G. Guarini, full of dynamic tension, include the churches of San Lorenzo (1668–87) and San Filippo Neri (begun 1675) and the Palazzo Carignano (begun 1679). Many piazzas and wide boulevards were built from the 17th to the 20th century, giving the center of Turin a particularly imposing appearance. These include Piazza San Carlo (1638), designed by C. da Castellamonte, and the rebuilt main street, Via Roma (1931–37), designed by M. Piacentini and others.
Noteworthy contemporary buildings include the Fiat plant (1926; engineer, M. Trueco) and structures designed by P. L. Nervi, including the new halls of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni and the “Italia ‘61” exhibition complex, which features the Palace of Labor (1961; co-designer, A. Nervi). In the 1950’s, new housing developments were built—La Falchora (G. Astengo, S. Molli-Boffa, and others) and Le Valette (N. Renacco and others). Two baroque structures designed by F. Juvarra are located near Turin—the church of Superga (1715–31) and the hunting palace of Stupinigi (1729–34). Turin’s museums include the Museum of Antiquities, the Albertine Academy of Fine Arts, the Egyptian Museum, and the Gallería Sabauda.