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Piedmont

Piedmont is a region of north-western Italy, closed in on three sides by mountains: the Alps separate it from France, Switzerland and the Aosta Valley, the Apennines from Liguria, while long stretches of the Ticino and the Po divide it from Lombardy. It covers 25,873 km² and its capital is Turin[1]. As of 1 January 2025 it had 4,255,700 residents, of whom 448,900 were foreign nationals; more than half live in the metropolitan city of Turin, which alone has just over 2.2 million inhabitants[2]. There were 1,180 municipalities at the start of 2024, after a series of mergers that had left 1,206 in 2015[3]. Cradle of the House of Savoy and the first nucleus of the unified Italian state, Piedmont was for a century also the region of the automobile.

Territory

Almost half the surface area is mountainous, while the plain occupies barely a fifth of it[1]. Along the Alpine arc rise Monte Rosa, at 4,634 metres, and Gran Paradiso, at 4,061 metres[1]. The Po dominates the region's hydrography: the region's largest watercourses are its tributaries[1]. At the foot of the Alps, to the north-east, lie Lake Orta and Lake Maggiore; in the centre of the region rise the hills of Monferrato[1], and further south those of the Langhe and Roero.

From the name to the dynasty

Under Rome the territory became urbanized: excavations have brought to light the colony of Ivrea, roads and buildings at Alba, dwellings and a stretch of the amphitheatre at Asti, a necropolis at Vercelli and part of the walls of Novara[1]. After the fall of the empire the region changed hands among Odoacer, Theodoric, the Byzantines and the Lombards, while the Alpine valleys went to the Franks[1]. In the 10th century it reorganized around the march of Ivrea; Olderico Manfredi, margrave of Turin, dominated that march too, and the marriage of his daughter Adelaide to Otto of Savoy opened the way to Savoyard supremacy on this side of the Alps[1].

The name is younger than the history it designates. It appeared only in the first half of the 13th century, and at that time denoted only the territory lying roughly between the Po, the Sangone and the Alps[1]. It grew together with the Savoyard state, until the dynasty shifted its centre of gravity to this side of the Alps. On 7 February 1563, once the French troops had withdrawn, Emanuele Filiberto entered Turin through the Porta Palatina and made it the capital in place of Chambéry[4].

From duchy to kingdom

The turning point came after the siege of Turin of 1706. With the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 the dukes obtained the royal crown and Turin also became the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily; in 1718 Sicily was exchanged for Sardinia[5]. This gave rise to the Kingdom of Sardinia, of which Piedmont was the political and economic centre. Victor Amadeus II reformed the state and entrusted architecture with giving the capital a face worthy of its new rank: the court brought to Turin architects such as Filippo Juvarra, and the network of Savoy residences around the capital became the face of the new kingdom[5].

The French Revolution broke this continuity. With the armistice of Cherasco of 28 April 1796 the kingdom ceded Nice, Upper Savoy and the fortresses of Ceva, Cuneo and Tortona to France; on 9 December 1798 Charles Emmanuel IV was forced to take refuge in Sardinia and, after the Austro-Russian interlude of 1799 and Napoleon's victory at Marengo, on 21 September 1802 Piedmont was annexed to France[6]. About 95,000 Piedmontese were conscripted into the imperial armies; many took part in the Russian campaign, and few returned. In 1814 the Congress of Vienna brought the Savoys back to Turin and enlarged the kingdom with Liguria[6].

Piedmont and a united Italy

In the 19th century the Piedmont of Charles Albert, of Victor Emmanuel II and of Cavour led the unification of Italy. The Subalpine Senate met in the hall of Palazzo Madama, and Turin was the capital of the new Kingdom of Italy from 1861 to 1864, when the seat of government moved to Florence[4]. Having lost its political role, the region reinvented itself as an industrial hub: mechanical engineering and the automobile industry, led by FIAT, dominated its economy for much of the 20th century, alongside an agriculture specialized in rice from the Vercelli area, wines from the Alba and Asti areas, and fruit[1].

The Region

The Region as an institution was created in 1970. On 7 and 8 June the first Regional Council was elected, with 2,805,786 valid votes and nine lists competing; the first session was held on 13 July in the Palazzo delle Segreterie in piazza Castello, with 50 councillors: 20 from the Christian Democrats (DC), 13 from the Communist Party (PCI), 5 from the Socialist Party (PSI) and the rest divided among five minor parties[7]. The socialist Paolo Vittorelli was elected President of the Council; on 23 July the first regional government chose the Christian Democrat Edoardo Calleri di Sala as its president[7].

The statute currently in force is Regional Statutory Law No. 1 of 4 March 2005. It fixes the seat of the Council and the regional government in Turin and adopts the languages of the territory as its own[8]:

«The Region protects and promotes the original linguistic heritage of the Piedmontese community, as well as that of the Occitan, Franco-Provençal and Walser minorities.»

Alongside the Piedmontese language, whose dialects are divided into an upper and a lower group and share features with the languages of northern Italy and with Gallo-Romance[1], the statute thus names Occitan, Franco-Provençal and Walser[8]. On 14 October 2022 the Region received its new single headquarters, the Grattacielo Piemonte designed by Massimiliano Fuksas: 205 metres and 44 floors, the third-tallest building in Italy, intended to bring together over two thousand employees previously spread across ten offices. «It will be called Grattacielo Piemonte, since it was the Piedmontese who paid for this building», said president Alberto Cirio at the handover[9].

Heritage and the present

Piedmont has five UNESCO World Heritage sites: the Savoy residences (1997), the Sacri Monti (2003, with Lombardy), the prehistoric pile-dwelling sites of the Alpine arc (2011), the vineyard landscapes of Langhe-Roero and Monferrato (2014), and Ivrea, industrial city of the 20th century (2018), linked to the Olivetti experience[10].

The economy remains strongly manufacturing-based, and for that reason more exposed than others to crises in the automotive sector. According to the Bank of Italy's report on 2025, regional output grew by 0.4%, slightly below the northern Italian average; the automotive sector was the most delicate point, while aerospace, which carries more weight in Piedmont than in the rest of the country, is among the most dynamic sectors. Tourism recorded a significant rise in visitor numbers[11]. The long-term issue is demographic: the average age of residents is 48.1 years, against 46.8 in Italy as a whole[2], and Istat projections indicate that the population will fall below four million by 2050, to 3,936,841 inhabitants[12].

The Regional Council approves the new Regional Territorial Plan (2026)

The Regional Council of Piedmont unanimously approves the new Regional Territorial Plan, which replaces the one in force since 2011 and aims to curb land consumption, dividing the territory into 33 Territorial Integration Areas.

Food recovery by the Piedmont Food Bank in 2025

In 2025 the Piedmont Food Bank recovers 5,339 tonnes of food from waste, equal to 55.3% of the 9,664 tonnes collected and redistributed overall during the year, in support of more than 111,000 people in need.

Timeline

  • — European Mobility Week returned, with Piedmont and Gtt promoting initiatives on cycling, walking and health. ANSA Piemonte TorinoOggi
  • — Leonardo brings helicopter component production back to Piedmont, entrusting fuel pumps to Apr of Pinerolo, air conditioning and pressurization systems to Mecaer of Borgomanero, and hydraulic system pumps to Tubiflex of Turin. → La Stampa
  • — The Luca Coscioni Association files at Palazzo Lascaris a popular-initiative regional bill on end-of-life care in Piedmont, signed by more than 14,000 citizens, modelled on the rules already approved in Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Sardinia and Tuscany. → Il Torinese la Repubblica Torino
  • — A delegation from Lower Silesia, a Polish region, is received at Palazzo Lascaris by the president of the Piedmont Regional Council, Davide Nicco, to strengthen economic ties between Piedmont and Poland. → ANSA Piemonte Eco del Chisone
  • — A national decree confirms that there will be no ban on Euro 5 diesel vehicles in northern Italy, reinforcing the measure already in force in Piedmont. → Quotidiano Piemontese
  • — A government decree postpones to 1 October 2027 the start of driving bans for Euro 5 diesel cars, confirming for Piedmont a suspension already decided at regional level. → Torino Free
  • — The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport puts 387 new electric buses into service in Piedmont thanks to the Pnrr, an investment of about 240.9 million euros for Turin, Alessandria, Asti, Novara and Vercelli. → ANSA Piemonte
  • — Tourist overnight stays at Piedmont's agritourism farms grow, according to data released at the end of September 2026. → CronacaQui Torino Torino Free
  • — The Piedmont Region launches the 2026-2027 flu vaccination campaign, with the first doses administered from 8 October by paediatricians and from 13 October by general practitioners and pharmacies. → Quotidiano Piemontese Il Torinese
  • — According to Confesercenti, between 2019 and 2025, 1,915 bars closed in Piedmont (-15.83%), 507 of them in the city of Turin, with a loss of wealth estimated at 575 million euros across the region. → ANSA Piemonte Quotidiano Piemontese
  • — The Piedmont Regional Council unanimously approves the new Regional Territorial Plan, which replaces the one in force since 2011 and aims to curb land consumption, dividing the territory into 33 Territorial Integration Areas. → ANSA Piemonte TorinoOggi
  • — In Piedmont Nova Coop lowers pump prices at its Enercoop network, setting a cap of 1.99 euros per litre for petrol and 2.19 euros for diesel until 25 October 2026. → ANSA Piemonte Quotidiano Piemontese
  • — The Piedmont Region takes part for the first time, with its own institutional delegation led by regional councillor Paolo Bongioanni, in the Ithic conference on investment in tourist hospitality, in Milan. → TorinoOggi Prima Torino
  • — In Piedmont, the free immunization campaign against respiratory syncytial virus for newborns resumes on 1 October. → Quotidiano Piemontese
  • — The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport allocates almost 144 million euros of Pnrr funds for five projects on Piedmont's water infrastructure, including the rebuilding of the reservoir on the Sessera stream in the Vercelli area. → ANSA Piemonte
  • — The launch of World Winery Map, a new geospatial database of wine worldwide, records 4,268 wineries and 182,897 vineyards in Piedmont, noting average growing-season temperatures 1.6°C higher than Spain's Rioja. → TorinoOggi CronacaQui Torino
  • — On Tuesday 6 October, for European Caregiver Day, the Piedmont and Aosta Valley Oncology Network, together with 23 hospitals and health authorities, promotes a week of initiatives dedicated to caregivers of cancer patients, including an information point at the Molinette hospital in Turin. TorinoOggi Quotidiano Piemontese

Related articles: Alberto Cirio, Approval of the new Regional Territorial Plan of Piedmont (September 2026), Piedmont Food Bank, Biella, 2025 Food Bank report: 5,339 tonnes of food saved from waste, Regional Council of Piedmont

Pages that link here

Sources

  1. Treccani, Enciclopedia on line
  2. ANSA — 31 March 2025
  3. Regione Piemonte
  4. Fondazione dell'Avvocatura Torinese Fulvio Croce
  5. MuseoTorino
  6. TorinoToday
  7. Il Torinese — 13 July 2020
  8. Bollettino Ufficiale della Regione Piemonte — 4 March 2005
  9. Cuneo24 — 15 October 2022
  10. Regione Piemonte
  11. Torino Free — 17 June 2026
  12. ANSA — 28 January 2025
  13. ANSA Piemonte — 29 September 2026
  14. TorinoOggi — 29 September 2026
  15. ANSA Piemonte — 29 September 2026
  16. Il Torinese — 29 September 2026

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