Piazza Solferino
Piazza Solferino is a square in the center of Turin, permanently laid out around 1870 and named after the decisive battle of the Second Italian War of Independence, fought at Solferino on 24 June 1859.[1]
The monuments
At its center stands the equestrian monument to Ferdinando di Savoia, Duke of Genoa, by Alfonso Balzico: a work of 1866, installed in 1877, depicting the duke with drawn sword astride a dying horse.[2] In the gardens stands the statue of Giuseppe La Farina by Michele Auteri-Pomar, from 1884, removed in 2004 for the Olympic pavilions and reinstalled in 2013.[3] On the side facing Via Cernaia stands the Fontana Angelica by Giovanni Riva.[4]
The buildings
The Teatro Alfieri, inaugurated in 1855, overlooks the square.[5] The nineteenth-century building at number 21 was destroyed in the bombings of August 1943; in its place Gualtiero Casalegno built a fourteen-story building on a porticoed base with a shopping gallery, inaugurated in 1952.[6]
The Olympics and after
For the 2006 Games the square hosted the "Atrium Torino" pavilions; a City Council resolution of 19 October 2009 called for their removal along with the construction of an underground car park.[7][3]
Related articles: Fontana Angelica, Pietro Fenoglio, Teatro Alfieri