ITALIA | ITALY |
regione: Piemonte | Piedmont |
provincia: Torino |
Torino (English: Turin), the capital city of Piedmont, is situated at an elevation of 240 m on the river Po, about 100 km each from France to the west and Switzerland to the northwest, and about 140 southwest of Milano, the capital of adjacent Lombardy. The municipality of Turin has a population of about 871,000 (2019) and thus is the fourth-largest city in Italy after Milano, Rome and Naples. The greater Metropolitan City of Turin has a population of about 2,25 million.
The Taurini were an ancient Celto-Ligurian Alpine people, who occupied the upper valley of the Po River. As a people
they are rarely mentioned in history. It is believed that a Roman colony was established after 28 BC under the name
of Julia Augusta Taurinorum (modern Turin). After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the town was conquered by
the Heruli and the Ostrogoths, recaptured by the Romans, but then conquered again by the Lombards and then the Franks of
Charlemagne (773). The Contea di Torino (countship) was founded in the 940s. In the 12th century, the family of the
Counts of Savoy gained control and at the end of the 13th century it was annexed to their duchy. By the Treaties of
Utrecht (1713–1715) the Duke of Savoy acquired Sicily, soon traded for Sardinia, and part of the former Duchy of
Milan, and was elevated to king; thus Turin became the capital of a European kingdom. Turin, like the rest of Piedmont,
was annexed by the French Empire in 1802, thus becoming the capital (préfecture) of the département du
Pô (or département de l'Éridan after the ancient name of the river) until the fall of Napoléon
in 1814, when the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia was restored with Turin as its capital. In the following decades, the
Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia led the struggle towards the unification of Italy. In 1861, Turin became the capital of the
newly proclaimed united Kingdom of Italy until 1865, when the capital was moved to Florence, and then to Rome after the
1870 conquest of the Papal States. The late 19th century was also a period of rapid industrialization, especially in the
automotive sector. After World War I, harsh conditions brought a wave of strikes and workers' protests. Turin was
then a target of Allied strategic bombing during World War II, being heavily damaged by the air raids in its industrial
areas as well as in the city centre. In the postwar years, Turin was rapidly rebuilt and the city's automotive industry
played a pivotal role in the Italian economic miracle of the 1950s and 1960s. In 2006, Turin hosted the Winter Olympic
Games.
The Turin International Exposition (Esposizione internazionale dell'industria e del lavoro), focussing on industry and labour, was held in Turin in 1911. The fair was held in the Parco del Valentino (as were the three previous Turin fairs in 1884, 1885 and 1902 and the subsequent 1924 Turin fair). The fair covered 247 acres and received more than 4 million visits. The picture on glass no. 3916 [left] shows the entrance from Corso Raffaelo. Corso Raffaelo is to the back of the entrance buiding in the line of sight; behing the entrance building is Corso Massimo d'Azeglio.
The equestrian monument to Duke Amedeo of Savoy [foreground] was created
in 1902 by the sculptor Davide Calandra. While the buildings of the exhibition (icluding the entrance building) have long
since been demolished, the monument still exists. The statue is dedicated to the second son of King Vittorio
Emanuele II of Sardinia (later King of Italy). Not having the right to inherit, Amedeo became a military man and took
part in the wars of independence with Austria. In 1863 he was one of the heirs of the throne in Greece, but refused to rule.
But he became King of Spain in 1870 (Amadeo I), although his ruling did not last long — only
3 years, and after serious unrest he returned to Piedmont. He died in 1890 and was buried in Turin's Basilica di
Superga.
[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turin, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turin;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turin_International, https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esposizione_internazionale_di_Torino;
http://www.museotorino.it/view/s/713196ec1aeb4ec99578a35c941fb80b, https://it.igotoworld.com/en/poi_object/316995_monument-of-amedeo-of-savoia-turin.htm,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadeo_I_of_Spain]