Museums in Turin

• National Museum of Cinema
• Museum of contemporary art, Castello di Rivoli
• Civic Gallery of modern and contemporary art
• Art gallery Giovanni and Marella Agnelli
• Accademia Albertina delle Belle arti di Torino
• Museum of the duke mountain of the Abruzzi
• Museum Egizio
• Museum of the holy Sindone
• National Museum of the automobile Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia
• Museum of artillery
• The museum of Decorative arts Pietro Accorsi
• Museum of antiquity
• Civic Museum of antique art
• Museum Martini of the history of oenology
• Royal Armoury
• Civic Museum Pietro Micca and of the siege of Turin
• Castello Cavour di Santena, Foundation "Camillo Cavour"
• Regional Museum of natural sciences
• Museum of the natural history Don Bosco
• Museum of the Radio and Television
• Museum of anthropology and ethnografy
• Museum of puppets

National Museum of Cinema Il Museo Nazionale del Cinema (National Museum of Cinema) is a spectacular and exciting visual itinerary which offers its visitors the possibility to discover the origins and the history of cinema.

The museum was open in Turin in 1941, being a project by Maria Adriana Prolo, who was a collector and historian. In 1942 the city of Turin offered the museum some rooms from the Mole Antonelliana where to keep and show the materials that the collector was gathering.

Since 1953 the museum is member of the Federation Internationale des Archives du Film (FIAF) and in 1992 it became a foundation thanks to the support of the Piedmont Region, the town council of Turin, the province of Turin, the bank "Cassa di Risparmio" of Turin and the Association National Museum of Cinema.

Today the National Museum of Cinema, after some displacements, has returned to its original seat in the Mole Antonelliana: opened in July 2000, the spectacular exhibition of the architect François Confino, has transformed the monument symbol of the city into a museum set up in plumb-line, unique in the world.

Subdivided into five levels, with a surface of 3,200 m2, the museum perfectly adapts itself to the unusual architecture of the Mole, using it to offer surprising air visions and personal routes.

On the corkscrew stairs there are motion-picture posters and in the chapels there's the history of more than a century of cinema, from cinema animation to science fiction, from horror movies to cinema of love and death.

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Museum of Contemporary Art, Castello di Rivoli Castello di Rivoli, huge baroque-style castle placed in a strategic position on the morenican hill at the entrance of the Susa Valley, already casa-forte in 11th century and passed to the Savoys in 14th century, was rebuilt by the architects Ascanio Vitozzi, Carlo and Amedeo di Catellamonte, Michelangelo Garove and by the great Filippo Juvarra in 1715-1727; Juvarra worked on an ambitious project of enlargement, but it was left incompleted and its memory remains in the so-called Manica Lunga.

Castello di Rivoli houses the Museum of Contemporary Art, the most important Italian museum in its category; it has a permanent collection that gathers works of great European and American artists (some are especially made for the rooms of the castle), and every year offers a calendar rich of exhibitions with prestigious and international artists.

From 1984 onwards, the opening year of the museum, the permanent collection of the Rivoli Castle was continually enriched thanks to new acqusitions, donations and long term loans.

The collection documents the crucial moments of the development of the contemporary art in Italy and abroad in the years between the 50s until today. Thanks to the acquisitions of works that are presented in the temporary exhibitions, the enlargement of the collection reflects also the history of the activities of the museum.

The opening of Manica Lunga (long sleeve) permitted the set up of the collection on two floors of the castle. The set up, in a cronological part, reflects the complexity of the artistic event and the constant evolution of the language of its protagonists.

The new route is inclined to the realization of monographical halls and is organized so that each hall represents one or more workmoments of each artist, or offers a chance of a dialogue between the works of the different artists.

The works of the collection are exposed in rotation, with the purpose of offering a cultural overview of the museum.

The architectual variety of the halls of Rivoli Castle establishes an original setting for the contemporary art works that you find in the permanent or temporary collection.

The Museum, a unique place for these characteristics, has 38 halls and the third floor of the Manica Lunga at its disposal, which together create an exhibitory space of about 7,000 m2.

This becomes the ideal frame to expose today's artworks that every time perform a different and unexpected dialogue with the past culture.

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Galleria civica di Arte moderna e contemporanea Turin was the first Italian city that promoted a public collection of modern art as a constitutional part of the own Civic Museum, opened in 1863. The collections were at first kept together with the collections of antique art in a building near the Mole Antonelliana.

In 1895 they were moved to a Pavillion overlooking Corso Siccardi (now Galileo Ferraris), built years before on the occasion of an art exhibition, and remained there until 1942.

During the Second World War this Pavillion was destroyed and on the same place the current building designed by Carlo Bassi and Goffredo Boschetti, that was opened in 1959, was closed in the beginning of the 80s due to instability, and reopened in 1993, entirely refurbished: the exhibition space had been enlarged, it was supplied with modern plant design and made accessible in every part for the disabled.

In the meantime, an extended preservation and restauration of the art collections has been completed.

The compound of the museum, as well as the galleries for permanent art, now consist of halls for temporary exhibitions, of rooms for didactic activities, of a space for rotating exhibitions of works kept in store, of a library and a photo library (and since 1999 also a video library) that are open to the public.

The artistic possession of the Gallery consists of 15,000 works of paintings, sculptures, installations and photographies, as well as of a rich collection of drawings and engravings.

The collections that date back to the end of 18th century 'til nowadays, document above all the Italian art, but important examples of foreign art are not missing either. The works that are exposed permanently are more than 700.

For the nineteenth century the presence of Massimo d'Azeglio, of the landscapes of Fontana and Delleani, of Pellizza da Volpedo, Mancini, Fattori and of some sculptors Medardo Rosso and Vincenzo Gemito are famous.

As for the 20th century, the collections are rich of works of Casorati, Martini, Morandi, De Pisis, Manzù, Melotti, Burri, Fontana, and Mastroianni.

A choice of painters documents the international historical vanguards from Modigliani to Balla, Serverini, Boccioni, De Chirico, from Dix to Ernst, Klee and Picabia.

The contemporary art is represented at an international range in the informal field and with NeoDada works, of Pop Art, as well as a rich collection of Italian works of the 60s from the Experimental Museum and of a group choice of poor Art.

The exhibition galleries are divided into areas, each of them is dedicated to a group of works all marked by consistency, group which in turn is subdivided into different adjoining spaces.

The exposition track begins on the second floor, where the most antique works are shown, of the end of the 18th century and the 19th century. The cultural painting regards particularly the Piedmont, but some halls are also dedicated to other Italian regions and to foreign works.

The display continues on the first floor with collections of the 20th century, that go until the 90s.

The Italian art is side by side with the foreign art.

The track follows a chronological order but wants to highlight also the presence of different themes and languages and to show the dialectic of the artistic movements; additionally there is a great space for relevent personalities and for important donations which were received by the Museo del collezionismo privato (Museum of private collections).

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Pinacoteca Giovanni and Marella Agnelli The last prestigious art place in Turin is born thanks to the wish of the honour president of Fiat Giovanni Agnelli and of his wife Marella. It's placed in the area of Lingotto and was created by the architect Renzo Piano, who had also designed the restructioning of the internal industrial area, that is called the Jewel Box: infact like a precious Jewellery box, the art gallery holds 25 pieces of the private collection of Giovanni and Marella Agnelli, and also promotes temporary exhibitions and other events.

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Accademia Albertina delle Belle arti di Torino The name Accademia Albertina goes back to Carlo Alberto di Savoia (Charles Albert of Savoy). Although the Savoy king "refounded" the Accademia in 1833, its origins are much more remote, insomuch as Turin Accademia can be considered as one of the oldest in Italy.

Already in the first half of 17th century, a University of painters, scupltors and architects, was active in Turin became the company of S. Luca and adopted for the first time the name of Accademia in 1678, when Maria Giovanna of Savoy-Nemours, widow of Carlo Emanuele II, founded the Accademia of painters, sculptors and architects, inspired by the model of the Academie Royale of Paris.

Around 1833, a real "refounding" was enforced to the works of Carlo Alberto: a new site in the building was assigned to the royal Accademia Albertina and is still occupied by it now; the Accademia was additionally supplied with a significant art gallery where the collections of the marquis monsignor di Morano and the precious cardboards of the Gaudenzian period, already property of the Savoys, flow together.

Between the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th century the Accademia accompanied worthily the transit from realism to the new art, in the direction of the eclecticism, from the Liberty and the renewal of the main themes, with the painting of landscapes and others that see as protagonists Antonio Fontanesi, Giacomo Grosso, Cesare Ferro and with the sculpture of Vincenzo Vela, Odoardo Tabacchi and Edoardo Rubino.

The Abertin had the last turning-point to start from the beginning of the 40s, with the contribution of some significant representatives of Turin figurative culture updated with the models of the central European and French vanguard: Casorati, Paulucci and following Menzio for painting, Cherchi for sculpture, Calandri for engraving, Kaneclin for set design, cooperated very well with helpful assistants like Galvano, Scroppo, Davico who document the developments of art in the instant post-war period.

In those last years the Accademia Albertina has further on transformed and renewed itself, promoting numereous didactic and cultural initiatives. To signal, in this case, the reorganisation and the reopening of the art gallery to the public, the intense activity of exhibitions, conferences, seminars and manifestations, the massive introduction of information technology at the Accademia and the institution of the new experimental track of conservation and restauration to start from the school year 1997-98.

After a break of decades, since a couple of years, also the art gallery reopened to the public, that suggested not only like a precious didactic instrument, but also as a museum's property of great interest, well worthy to assign a role of importance next to the other Turin public institutions like the Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (gallery of modern and contemporary art) or the Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Rivoli (museum of contemporary art of Rivoli).

In 12 large halls, set up according to the most modern criteria of preservation and of fruition, the art Gallery hosts further 300 paintings, sculptures and drawings, among which there's a precious collection of 60 cardboards of Gaudenzio Ferrari and of his school. The origins of the art gallery dates back to the years 1824-29, with the donation of the "quadreria" belonging to the casalesian archbishop, Vincenzo Maria Mossi di Morano:

more than 200 paintings, to which were added a few years later (1932) the donation by Carlo Alberto of the rich collection of 60 cardboards and drawings belonging to 16th century, until then kept in the royal archives, and connected essentially to the Gaudenzio Ferrari activity and of his school. In the first instance, the art gallery of the Accademia was destined to favour "the education of young people inclined to the beautiful art of drawing and painting";

therefore its function was first of all didactic, and from this point of view it was enriched during the centuries, thanks to leavings and donations, as well as with the contribution of realized works of lecturers and their own pupils, which number must have been very conspicuous and of which today nothing remains but isolated traces:

already in 1933, the inventory of Noemi Gabrielli documented clearly the disappearance of this group of works realized in 19th century in the area of the Accademia.

Just this close bond with the academic education has confined the fame of the art gallery in an area reduced to some few specialised researchers: the only ones, after all, that could enter, given that before the recent renovations, it has never been open to the public. Just for a couple of years, after the restructuring of the roomsuntil then occupied by an artistical high school, the art gallery has has become a member of the great Piedmont institutions, also if its fame is not yet propotional to the works it houses.

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Museo della Montagna Duca degli Abruzzi The Museo Nazionale della Montagna Duca degli Abruzzi (National Museum of the Abruzzi Duke Mountain) is situated in Turin, sideways to the church and to the cloister of the Cappucini al Monte, in a panoramic position from which it is possible to admire a long stretch of the Alps and the city below.

The idea to found this museum was born in 1874 among the first members of the Italian Alpine Club, that was born a decade before in the city. Although it was born with narrowed horizons, the museum was able to develop and to enlarge, insomuch as currently it works, with a a wide and composite activity, at national as well as at international level.

It wants to be a collection of cultural unity that links ideally, under all aspects, the mountains of the whole world. Therefore, following the set goal, they added some temporary exhibition to the permanent ones.

The national museum of the mountains is divided into three levels: on the ground floor, the one of the entrance, deals with naturalistic-environmental aspects of the mountain, of its traditions, its life, its art and of technological contributions, which determined its transformations.

The section on the first floor concerns the Alpine practice in its various historical, explorative and sportive manifestations, completed with civil services that they have organized.

In the basement of the "arches" some rooms to be used for temporary exhibitions or manifestations are available. In the museum function two documentation centres, one of the museum and the CISDAE (centre of Italian documentation study of non-european mountaineering) and a historical film collection.

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Museo Egizio The Ancient Egypt Museum of Turin is one of the most important ones, maybe the most important in Europe: there are findings and collections of the civilization of the Pharaohs from 17th century to nowadays.

The collection is characterized by numerous objects and exceptional documents: statues, papyrus, sarcophagus, stele, mummies, objects in bronze, jewels, tableware, and other objects of the ordinary life. The most antique sculpture is the one of the princess Redi, sculpted at the time of 3rd dynasty (around 2,800 BC).

With further three centuries of history, the Ancient Egypt Museum of Turin is considered as the most important Egyptian collection also thanks to the fundamental considered documents for the egyptology research; additionally, the antiques are so different and numerous that you can find a whole delineation of the civilization of Ancient Egypt from the origins to 5th and 6th century AC. The exhibition, well arranged and divided into three floors, allows a visit to the most important sections in about 2 hours, not preventing the most interested ones from losing the sense of time, letting them get intrigued by all the wonderful exhibits.

An enlargement project of the exhibition spaces and a new arrangement of the collection is in progress to adjust the museum to the future public with better informative and dedactic services.

The museum of the Ancient Egypt is one of the most important Egyptian collections and its history follows the events of the rediscovery of the Pharaoen culture from the 17th century to nowadays.

In 15th century the Savoys acquired from Gonzaga di Mantova the "Iliac Table", table of bronze decorated with drawings of religious ceremonies in honor of the goddess Iside. Its descovery in Rome in 1527 encourages the studies about Egyptian culture.

In 16th century Carlo Emanuele of Savoy sent the Paduan naturalist Vitaliano Donati in a scientific mission in Orient and from the sedition in the Nil Valley the statue of the godesse Iside arrived to Turin , discovered in Coptos, and the statues of the Pharaoe Ramesse II and of the goddess Sekhmet, were discovered in the temple of the goddess Mut in Karnak (Tebe).

The end of 16th and the beginning of 18th century are fundamental for the Museum's formation, the discovery of Ancient Egypt and the birth of egyptianology.

In 1799 the scientific expedition guided by the napoleonic army in the Nil Valley begins an exellent documentation about Egypt, which was published in the volums of Description de l'Egypte, which make Europe of 17th century be aware of existence of Egypt.

The discovery made by an official of Napeoleon, of the Stele of Rosetta, belongs to the same year: it's about a stele with a geroglific, demotic and greek writing, which the French Jean-François Champollion will decipher in 1822, laying the foundation for Egyptology. After those happenings in several europeen nations, travelers and adventurers are interessed in collecting ancient things belonging to the Nil Valley and several collections arrive to Europe, becoming the center of the future great Egyptian museums.

The Egyptian Museum of Turin defines its physiognomy in this period and it's one of the first which affirms itself like a big collection of Egyptian antiquities, where in the following years we find collections from the Louvre of Paris, from the British Museum of London, of Berlin, of Leida, of Brussels, of Wien. In 1824 Carlo Felice of Savoy acquires the collection of Bernardino Drovetti, from Piedmont, who was interested in the research of antiquities during his stay in Egypt in quality of consul general of France: it consists of 8000 objects among great statues, papyrus, steles, sarcophagus and mummies, objects of bronze, jewels and objects of the ordinary life (tableware, food, bags and chests, clothes and obejects of cosmetic with parts of hair, mirrors, brushes etc), but even documents which shows art, religious and funeral traditions, ordinry life. Symbol of the collection is the statue of the pharaoe Ramesse II, considerated one of the masterworks of the Egyptian sculpture.

Other important works of the monumental Egyptian statuary of the collection are exposed in the Statuario to illustrate the high artistic level which was adopted by the Egyptian sculpture and the ability of the craftsmen in the work of Egyptian stones; numerous are the statues of pharaoes, of gods and exponents of the New Kingdom from 18th to 20th dynasty. The most ancient sculpture of the colletion is the statue of the princess Redi, made during 3rd dynasty (about 2800 B.C. ).

Exeptional document of Egyptian art for a period of more than 400 years are the statues of pharaoes, gods and exponents of the New kingdom from 18th to 20th dynasty. The statues of Thutmosi III e di Amenhotep II, the groups of statues of Tutankhamon and of the god Amon and of Horemheb and the queen Mutnegemet, the colossal statue of pharaoe Sethi II, the sculptured group of Ramesse II with the god Amon and the goddess Mut and Ramesse II sitting on the throne, remember the greatness of the pharaoes of Egypt. The papyrus and the images of the divinities are equally important documents, to whom were dedicated inscription, statues and cult objects.

Also the section dedicated to the mummies of sacred animals is really interesting, connected to the gods cult: ibis and babbuins of the god Thot, crocodiles of the god Soebek, falcons of the god Horo, bulls of the god Hapi, fishes of the goddess Neith, cats of the goddess Bastet.

The several aspects of ordinary life are illustrated by the domestic tableware, which includes dishes of the table and for the alimentary conservation, chests and bags for clothes, beds and bolsters, sheets and blankets, sandals and food.

Even numerously is the documentation about arts and labour with work materials, such as nails, hammers, colours and a particular class of objects, constituted by pieces of chalk and fragments, used by scribes and draftsmen for exercises, notes and bittes of draft.

Purchases and excavations give to the Museum more than 30,000 anitquities, which integrate the image about the Egyptian civilization given by the Drovetti's collection, whose objects come from the Tebe zone and belong to the period from the New Kingdom to the Late Epoch, when Tebe was the capital of Egypt and also its main religious center.

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Museum of the Holy Shroud The Museum of the Shroud is placed in the church crypt of Saint Sudarium in Turin.

The new site, opened in 1998, is a crypt with virtual paintings about Jesus Passion, projected by 15 machinaries on the volta and niches, which slowly but continuously accompany the visitor.

The Museum is born in 1936, to retrace the stages of the Sheet's history and scientific researches which investigated on its image, collecting materials preserved by the Confraternity of Saint Sudario.

The Museum suggests to the visitor a complete and exhaustive information about the shroud's researches from 16th century to nowadays, showing historical, scientific, devoting and artistic aspects.

The research history beginf a century ago, in 1898, and since then researchers of different disciplines tried to "read" the Sindone and its image, trying to solve the mistery.

In the Museum, official vices of the photographic reconnaissance are exposed, done in 1898 by Secondo Pia and the ones took in 1931 by Giuseppe Enrie.

From these ones, all the following scientific investigations started, which are documentated in the museum, crown in the marvelous three-dimentional image of the face of the man of the Sindone made by Giovanni Tamburelli in 1978.

There is a big section dedicated to further studies: about substances and texture, about micro-traces, about medical-legal investrgations, about the traces of coins left on the Sheet, about the ioconographic analysis.

The canvass collection has a scientific importance not to undervalue, used by researchers to explain in laboratory the formation of the sindonic image, product of the experiments of Paul Vignon done in the beginning of the century, of G. Judica Cordiglia and R. romanese during 1940, of S. Rodante during 1970-1990 and of P. Baima Bollone in 1980. At last, the ones of V. Pesce Delfino, many times invoked in favour of the handmade origin of the Sindone, which by the way finish all the characteristics of the sindonic image, such as the unalterability during time.

A particular section traces the history (the hypotetical one and the true one) of the Sindone and of its veneration, very animated in Turin and in Piemonte until the second half of 15th century, when the Sheet became property of the Savoys.

Center of these veneration, that is shown in the periodical public Ostensions (from 12 August to 26 October each year), was, and still is, the Confraternity of the Saint Sudarium.

The Museum collects even particular objects like the box used for the definitive transport of the Sindone to Turin in 1578 and those, of silver, that containted it from the end of 14th century to 1998, when the Museum changed its site.

The expositive course is supported by multimedial systems which makes possible a better understanding, throught a seeing approach, of the evolution not only of scientific researches, but above all of eidomatic researches (the eidomatic is the information science of images) done on the image throught informatics systems.

The Museum has, in a experimental phase, a course for not viewers, product of the collaboration with the Italian Blindman Union-Turin section; moreover, the book "To Touch The Sindone" has been published, in black and in braille, printed in serigraph with diaphanous ink and it has even an audiocassette. The book is functional for the museum's visit and for the knowledge of the Sindone.

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National Car Museum Museo Carlo Biscretti of Ruffia The idea of a car museum was projected in 1932 by Cesare Goria Gatti and by Roberto Biscaretti of Ruffia, two pioneers of Italian motor industry.

The job to realize this project was given at Carlo Biscaretti of Ruffia and at Giuseppe di Miceli, at that time director of the Car Club of Turin, who organized in 1933 an exposition in Milan motor show.

In 1938, the vehicles were set in the locals situated under the central stairs of the communal stadium. Considering the great historical and technical value of the acquired patrimony, in 1956 the Car Factories and the Agnelli's family decided to promove the construction of a permanent site in Corso Unità d'Italia.

The Car Museum was in this way built and it was opened on 3th November 1960 and Carlo Biscaretti of Ruffia became its first president. During its history, the museum added some new sections: from the Center of Documentation and the library, which in 1975 was grown in books, originals documents and photographies, to the Congress Center and the Showroom of Temporany Exposition.

The Car Museum of Turin is the only National Museum of its kind in Italy and offers a century of locomotion narrated through the more or lessn 280 vehicles that are exposed.

It is one of the biggest European collection and contains vehicles of every kind: from the replication of the first driving car of history, the artillery car of Cugnot of 1769, to a solar-powered model of 1990. There are even present sportif models and series vehicles, great American berlins of representation and delicious state coaches, record Silurians and American dragster, F1 and sportif vehicles, electronic, vapour and drum motor cars.

The vehicles, which belong to 80 different motorcars factories, come from Italy, France, Great Britain, Holland, Spain, Poland and USA. In the new acquisitions of the Museum there are the Ferrari 246 F1, world champion of F1 in 1958 with Mike Hawthorne, a presidential Lancia Flaminia of 1961, given to the Museum by the president Ciampi and the Alfa Romeo 155 V6 T1 with whom Nicola Larini took part at the World Tourism Championship.

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Artillery Museum The Museum is situated in Mastio, the only rest of the fortified small town.

Opened in 1731 by Carlo Emanuele III, it is an appropied compendium of the Regal Arms: it relives in fact the arms' history from 13th to 19th century with rare land exemplars. Faced on Castello's square, the artillery is one of the most important in Europe and it is just in these months object of investments. There are collected white arms, firearms and armatures from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, and a conspicuous section is dedicated to oriental handmades.

The Gallery of Beaumont is extraordinary and the painter drawed the volta the "Enea's Stories" (1738.1764). Among the objects on display, there is the armature of Diego Felipe Guzman.

Museum of Decoratif Arts of Pietro Accorsi The Museum of Decoratif Arts of the Accorsi Foundation, opened on 3rd December 1999, was created by the rich heredity of Pietro Accorsi (Turin 1891-1982), one of the most important European Antiquarian of the 19th century.

The "dream of the 17th century" of Pietro accorsi represents in the first half of the century an alternative to the dominant interest of Europe and USA for the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

The originality of his vision is that he does not like gold backgroungs and drawed drawers, but the poulence of silk, rococò decorations and the straight lines of the neo-classicism.

His houses offered an inteligent interpretation of the 17th century style, where the epoch furniture were systemized in a reconstituted and redrawn context.

This museum was therefore conceived in Accorsi's style like an inhabited house, a following of spaces of extraordinary richness, where it seems that the owner has just gone out and the furniture, carpets, objets, pictures recreate the atmosphere of the 17th century. The expositive course is composed by 27 halls and has thousands of objects belonging to the 17th century. Woods, majolicas, but above all porcelains, which were in particulary collected by Accorsi, for example the spectacular porcelain service of Frankenthal of 160 pieces.

Important pictures complete the visit course, such as a serie of six hunts drawn by Vittorio Amedeo Cignaroli (1730-1800), the Joys of the land live, variant of the famous painting of François Boucher now in Louvre.

A collection to see, to listen, to feel, to touch: there are ordinary visits, theme visits, visits for every school, for cultural associations, cycles of conferences, meetings with experts, classical music concerts dedicated to the 17 th century (there are produced cds), evenings dedicated to the theatre, temporary exhibitions of international interest, courses of art history or formation courses for teacher.

In addition, not to forget is the institution special care towards disabled person: the museum is endowed with passes for handicapped people, for example in April 2002 the pass with tacticle pavement for blindmen was open in collaboration with the Italian Blindman Union, and in May 2002 guided tours for not hearing people were realized in collaboration with the National Mute Office of Turin.

Moreover, the website was built in order to take care also of the exigences of blind and vision-impaired people.

Therefore, it is a museum for everyone, just as Pietro Accorsi wished it to be.

On 8th May 2003, the president of the Italian Republic Ciampi gave to this Institution the Medal for Culture and Art merits.

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Museum of Antiquary The Museum of Antiquary, situated in the Regal Gardens, is made up of showrooms which propose an ideal itinerary backwards in time, to better know the numerous and marvelling recognitions of ancient region of Piemonte, since the famous silvers of the treasure of Marengo.

The Orangeries of the palace, the archaeological collection own by the Savoys since the 17th century, constitute an excellent occasion to enjoy culture and civilization of the past.

The showrooms dedicated to the civilization history of Turin, faced on the rest of the Roman theatre, are next to open.

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Civil Museum of antient art It is the landmark for the Piedmont art situated in Palazzo Madama. The collection suggests painting, sculpture and decorative art with a particular reference to the Piedmont productions between Middle Ages and the 17th century. Centre-piece: portrait of Antonello from Messina. At the moment it is closed because of a makeover.

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National Museum of the Italian Risorgimento

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Martini Museum of Enology History The Museum of Enology History was created in 1961 by Lando Rossi, who wanted to dedicate a museum to wine. The museum's halls were obtained from the original wine cellars of the late 17th century villa, seat of the first Martini-Rossi factories. There are more than 600 specimen exposed: a digression about wine from the first millenium BC to the past century.

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Royal Armoury The Royal Armoury of Turin is one of the most conspicuous collection of arms in the world. It was inaugurated by Carlo Alberto of Savoy in 1837, and it even conserves numerous types of knifes and firearms and armours. The medieval arms are valuables, the 15th century and 16th century exemplars are numerous, the firearms are also many, the napoleonic weapons and relics and the armours belonged to the sabaud kings. To the Museum is owner of the "Scalone" of Benedetto Alfieri (1740), the Rotunda (1842), the Beaumont Gallery (1733) and the Medal Collection (1839).

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Civic Museum Pietro Micca and of the Siege of Turin The Pietro Micca Museum is dedicated to the partiot who contibuted in a decisive way to stop the French siege in 1706, and it is placed on an area which corresponds, approximatly, to the enemy attack front. Opened in 1961, it contains plastic models, prints and relics of the epoch. The underground itinerary of tunnels of mines illuminated by old lanterns is also very interesting and spectacular to visit.

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Castle of Cavour of Santena, "Camillo Cavour" Foundation The Castle of Cavour of Santena is a monumental complex made pu of the castle (house-museum that belongs to the Cavour's, Alfieri of Sostegno's, Visconti Venosta's families), the Diplomatic Room, the Park, the Cavour's grave and the Tower. It is managed by the Cavour's Foundation. The Castle is surrounded by an English park, conceived by Xavier Kurten. The 17th century building's halls were restored and now are designed for cultural events and exhibitions.

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Regional Museum of Natural Sciences Instituted in 1978, the Regional Museum of Natural Sciences is placed in the 17th century buliding which was the seat of the Saint Giovanni Battista Hospital. It gathers collections of botanic, entomology, geology, mineralogy, petrographie, palaentology and zoology, some of those coming from University museums and others are new acquisitions. It is the seat of many exhibitions and it has even a specialistic library open to the public.

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Museum of Natural History Don Bosco Founded by Don Bosco in 1878, with the acquisition of a zoological collection for the Valsalice Institution, the Museum was and still today is enriched with materials coming from the whole world, in particulary from the Salesian Missions. With a series of scientific tools of the 19th and 20th centuries, there is the biggest mineralogical exhibition in Piedmont, of about 5,000 pieces. There are even exposed fossils, animals, erbariums and a documentation about present and past cultures, above all of Latin America.

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Museum of Radio and Television The uniqueness of this collection is that it is a RAI collection, closely linked with the archieves' and business' history asset. The first project for the realization of a Museum of Radio in Turin, the main town of the Italian radiofonie, is in 1939. The collected, arranged and catalogued materials amount to almost 1500 relics and contains very interesting documents, recordings and technical-professional apparatus.

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Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography The origins of the Museum, even collecting previous collections, date back to 1923. In 1936 it was moved to the actual seat and since 1961 it is a University property. In the exhibited material there are numerous collections of primatological, anthropological, palaentological and ethnological studies which have exellent quality finds .

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Puppet Museum A world in miniature full of curiosity, hanging between game and theater magic: it is the kingdom of the puppets which is situated in the Theater-Museum Gianduja. The valuable collection of the Lupi's family, collected during the 200 years of its activity, has 5000 exemplars with hundreds of puppets, furnishings and costumes of the 18th century.

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