Palazzo a Vela
The Palazzo a Vela, known as Palavela, is the exhibition and sports building at via Ventimiglia 145, built in 1959-1961 for Italia '61 and transformed in 2003-2005 for the 2006 Winter Olympics.[1]
The sail
It was designed by the architect Annibale Rigotti and his son Giorgio together with Franco Levi and Nicolas Esquillan: a self-supporting vault of prestressed reinforced concrete resting on three supports, built by the firm of Gastone Guerrini on the model of the CNIT in Paris, for which Esquillan had done the calculations.[1] It covered a circular hall 130 metres in diameter enclosed by glass walls.[1]
From Italia '61 to the Air Force
Originally called the "Palazzo delle Mostre" (Exhibition Hall), it was built for the Clothing Trade Fair and during Italia '61 it hosted the "Moda Stile Costume" exhibition.[1] From 1961 to 1974 it housed the Historical Museum of the Italian Air Force, and in the 1980s, starting with Sportuomo, it began to be used for sports.[1]
The ice
In 2003 Gae Aulenti and the engineer Aurelio De Bernardi transformed it for figure skating and short track events at the 2006 Games, building a new independent structure with 8,000 seats beneath the vault and removing the glass walls.[1] It later hosted the 2007 Summer Universiade and the Winter Universiade of 13-23 January 2025.[2] From 20 to 23 September 2026 it hosted the round of 16 and quarter-finals of the men's EuroVolley, with Italy beating Denmark 3-0 on 20 September.[3][4] The 2026-2027 public skating season opened on 10 October, after more than 40,000 visits the previous season.[5]
Related articles: Italia '61
Pages linking here
Sources
- MuseoTorino
- FISG — 27 June 2023
- Torino Oggi — 16 September 2026
- ANSA — 20 September 2026
- Torino Cronaca — 28 September 2026