Borgo Po

Borgo Po is the district of Turin on the right bank of the Po, separated from the city centre only by the river and linked to piazza Vittorio by the ponte Vittorio Emanuele I; since 2016 it has belonged to Circoscrizione 8, together with San Salvario, Cavoretto, Nizza Millefonti, Lingotto and Filadelfia.^[1]^[2]

History

The plain was once farmland with small clusters of fishermen's houses, inhabited since the Middle Ages; craft workshops appeared there from the seventeenth century, but urban development only came in the twentieth century, when the district became a residential area much loved by the upper middle class.^[1] In 1705 the engineer Antonio Bertola set up an entrenched camp there to defend the bridgehead during the siege of 1706, traces of which survive around Villa della Regina.^[3] At the start of the twentieth century the fledgling film industry settled in what is now via Asti.^[1] The 1995 master plan classifies the district among the urban areas of historical and environmental value.^[4]

The bridge and the Gran Madre

The ponte Vittorio Emanuele I, the "stone bridge", was commissioned by Napoleon in 1807 and built between 1810 and 1813 on the site of the old Po bridge: 150 metres long, it is the oldest bridge in the city still standing.^[5] At its far end stands the Gran Madre di Dio designed by Ferdinando Bonsignore, a temple modelled on the Pantheon built to mark the return of Vittorio Emanuele I: the first stone was laid on 23 July 1818 and it was inaugurated on 20 May 1831; since 1932 the ossuary of those who fell in the First World War has lain beneath the church.^[6] Since 21 September 2018 via Monferrato, between the Po and the Gran Madre, has been pedestrianised.^[7]

The hill

On the Monte dei Cappuccini stand the convent of Santa Maria al Monte and the National Mountain Museum.^[1] Villa della Regina was transformed in 1615 by Ascanio Vitozzi for Cardinal Maurizio di Savoia and later enriched by Filippo Juvarra; it takes its name from Queen Anna Maria d'Orléans and in 1868 was given over to a military orphanage.^[1]

Parco Michelotti

Parco Michelotti, at corso Casale 89, covers about 35,000 square metres and grew up around the canal built by Ignazio Michelotti, operating from 1816 and buried underground in the 1930s; it was home to the city zoo from 20 October 1955 to 1 April 1987.^[8] The police station on via Sabaudia is to be demolished and rebuilt on the same site, partly because of its proximity to the rio Pattonera: according to the City, officers will move to corso Spezia in spring 2027, with reopening expected in 2028.^[9]

Related articles: San Salvario, The Po in Turin

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