Mirafiori
Mirafiori is the southern district of Turin that takes its name from a sixteenth-century Savoy castle and that in the twentieth century became the symbol of the Italian car industry: since 1939 it has been home to Fiat's largest plant, at corso Giovanni Agnelli 200.[1][3]
The castle and the name
In 1585 Duke Carlo Emanuele I began building a castle along the Sangone river and gave it to his wife Caterina d'Asburgo, daughter of Philip II of Spain; the name comes from the Spanish «Miraflores», in homage to the duchess's origins.[1] The castle fell into decline after 1640, when it was bombed by French troops during the Piedmontese civil war, and the court came to prefer Venaria and Stupinigi. In 1741 it became a tobacco manufactory, in 1753 Carlo Emanuele III sold it to the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, and in 1866 it was bought by Rosa Vercellana, Countess of Mirafiori; at the end of the nineteenth century it was demolished because of the Sangone's recurring floods.[1]
The district
Until after the Second World War the area was largely rural. The railway arrived in 1884 and the Fiat plant in 1939; between the 1950s and the 1970s came the major public housing projects, the Fiat workers' housing on via Vigliani in the late 1950s and the via Artom district in 1966.[2] Parco Colonnetti stands on the site of Turin's first airport, named after Gino Lisa.[2] Circoscrizione 10, established in 1983, comprised Mirafiori Sud, Cime Bianche, Borgata Mirafiori and Basse Lingotto, and bordered Moncalieri, Nichelino, Beinasco, Orbassano and Grugliasco.[2]
The factory
Since 1939 the district has been home to Fiat's Mirafiori plant, inaugurated by Mussolini on 15 May of that year: a hundred hectares of single-storey facilities, modeled on Ford's factories.[3][4] The district's history is bound up with that of the plant, from the strikes of March 1943 to the «hot autumn» of 1969 and the 1980 labor dispute, which ended with the march of the forty thousand[5][6][7]; since November 2025 the hybrid 500 has been produced there.[8]
Related articles: FIAT, Giovanni Agnelli (1866–1945), Stabilimento di Mirafiori, Torino
Pages linking here
- Accident between Via Biscaretti di Ruffia and Via Buriasco on 24 September 2026
- Aeroporto di Torino-Caselle
- ATC Piemonte Centrale
- ATC Torino
- Comau
- Districts of Turin
- Eviction of via Roveda on 18 September 2026
- FIAT
- Giovanni Agnelli (1866–1945)
- John Elkann
- Layoffs at Mirafiori for the Fiat 500 electric production line (October 2026)
- March of the Forty Thousand
- Mario Soldati
- Metropolitana di Torino
- Museo Piemontese dell'Informatica (MuPIn)
- Nichelino
- Recupero di due alloggi occupati abusivamente in via Roveda a Torino Mirafiori (settembre 2026)
- Sconfini Giovani 2026
- Sergio Marchionne
- Stabilimento di Mirafiori
- Stellantis
- Territorial Housing Agency for Central Piedmont
- Umberto Agnelli
- Victor Emmanuel II
- Vittorio Valletta
Timeline
- — The Atc agency recovered a dwelling that had been illegally occupied on via Roveda, in Turin's Mirafiori district, the second in three days. → TorinoToday TorinoOggi
- — Stellantis announces layoffs under the wage guarantee fund from 19 to 30 October for 1,074 workers at the Mirafiori body shops on the electric and hybrid Fiat 500 line. → ANSA Piemonte TorinoOggi
- — In Turin's Mirafiori Sud, at the intersection of via Biscaretti di Ruffia and via Buriasco, a car overturns after colliding with another vehicle, and the driver at fault flees on foot. → TorinoToday