Cit Turin
Cit Turin, Piedmontese for «little Turin», is the smallest district of the city and the only one with a dialect name; it is the narrowest sector of the Cenisia district, in Circoscrizione 3, and between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was regarded as a miniature city, because it repeated the orthogonal grid of the historic centre despite having a triangular shape.[1][2]
Piazza Benefica
The heart of the district is Piazza Martini, bounded by Via Principi d'Acaja, Via Duchessa Jolanda, Via Palmieri and Via Susa.[2] Turinese people still call it «piazza Benefica» after the Casa Benefica for destitute youths that stood there until after the war, founded in 1889 by the lawyer and urban magistrate Luigi Martini (1840-1894) as a secular institution to assist poor boys and teach them a trade; the gardens bear his name.[1][3] On the square stands the Church of Gesù Nazareno, designed by Giuseppe Gallo in 1904 and consecrated on 24 May 1913.[4]
As early as 1911 the square hosted a market for fuel and fodder; today the Martini-Benefica market is the «market of brands», known for branded clothing.[2] Since 8 September 2025 the City has been renovating it in nine phases over about a year, with new paving, underground utility networks and new trees.[5]
Art Nouveau
Many houses in the district are by Pietro Fenoglio, Giovanni Gribodo and Gottardo Gussoni.[1] The best known is Casa Fenoglio-La Fleur, at Via Principi d'Acaja 11 on the corner of Corso Francia, designed in 1902 by Pietro Fenoglio as his own house and studio and completed by 1903: in the corner tower the bow-window with large stained-glass panes is topped by a canopy reminiscent of Hector Guimard's Paris Métro stations.[6] Passed on to entrepreneurs named La Fleur and later to the «Benefica», which for some years housed troubled boys there, it has now been restored, with offices and dwellings, and can only be seen from outside.[6][7] At Corso Francia 23 the Palazzo della Vittoria, from 1920, is by Gottardo Gussoni.[8]
Around the district
On the edges of Cit Turin, after Unification, a district of major public services grew up: the Carceri Nuove prison, the Slaughterhouse, the Foro Boario cattle market, barracks and the old Martini hospital; today the Bruno Caccia Palace of Justice and Renzo Piano's Intesa Sanpaolo skyscraper stand there.[1]
Related articles: Pietro Fenoglio
Pages linking here
Sources
- MuseoTorino
- MuseoTorino
- MuseoTorino
- MuseoTorino
- Città di Torino — 6 September 2025
- MuseoTorino
- Torino Oggi — 30 April 2023
- MuseoTorino