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Turin

Turin is the capital of Piedmont and of the metropolitan city that bears its name. It stands at 239 metres above sea level, on an alluvial plain where the Dora Riparia flows into the Po, squeezed between the morainic amphitheatre of Rivoli to the west and the hill to the east; the municipal area covers 130.01 km²[1]. A Roman colony, Savoy capital for three centuries, the first capital of the Kingdom of Italy and later the city of the automobile, it is today a city of more than 850,000 inhabitants that, after the crisis of heavy industry, has turned to culture, universities and tourism[1].

From the Taurini to Augusta Taurinorum

Before the Romans, the confluence of the Po and the Dora was controlled by the Taurini, a cluster of Alpine tribes rather than a single people. In 218 BC they opposed Hannibal's descent into Italy; according to Polybius, he destroyed their settlement after a three-day siege[2]. The Taurini obtained Roman citizenship in 49 BC; between 25 and 15 BC, during the subjugation of the Alps ordered by Augustus, the colony of Augusta Taurinorum was founded, a rear base for operations towards the mountain passes and Gaul[3][2].

The Roman city was a rectangle of roughly 700 by 750 metres, about fifty hectares, with walls, a theatre, an aqueduct, sewers and paved streets[2][3]. Its perimeter still corresponds to today's via della Consolata, via Santa Chiara, piazza Castello and via Santa Teresa, and the orthogonal street grid of the Quadrilatero Romano echoes the ancient layout[3][2]. Of the four gates, the Porta Palatina survives, along with the one incorporated into Palazzo Madama, both on the main cardo[2].

From Lombard duchy to Savoy capital

Probably as early as 569 Turin passed to the Lombards, who made it the seat of a duchy; in 773 Charlemagne conquered it, and around 940 Arduin the Glabrous established the march of Turin there[1]. Between 1491 and 1505 Bishop Domenico della Rovere had the new Renaissance cathedral built, and in 1513 the diocese became an archdiocese[4]. From 1538 to 1563 Piedmont was annexed to France, and Francis I set up a parliament and a court of auditors in the city[4].

The turning point came with Emanuele Filiberto: once the French had left, on 7 February 1563 the duke fixed the capital of the state at Turin, in place of Chambéry[1][4]. He had the citadel built at one corner of the ancient castrum and placed the ducal residence at the opposite corner; his successor Charles Emmanuel I planned a city three times larger than the medieval one[4]. From that choice arose the system of court palaces, villas and hunting estates that revolves around the «command zone» of piazza Castello, with the Palazzo Reale: the Savoy Residences, twenty-two complexes inscribed by UNESCO in 1997 on the World Heritage list[5].

Siege, kingdom and the Risorgimento

From 13 May to 8 September 1706 the city withstood the French army: the siege ended with the victory of Duke Victor Amadeus II and his cousin Eugene of Savoy, and is linked to the sacrifice of the miner Pietro Micca[1]. The victory led to a considerable expansion of the state of the House of Savoy, and Turin took on its eighteenth-century face: Filippo Juvarra completed La Venaria, designed churches and palaces, and, outside the city, the Basilica of Superga and the Stupinigi hunting lodge[1].

From 1801 to 1814 Turin, occupied by the French, was the capital of the Eridano department[1]. Having returned as the capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia, it was the city of the Statuto that Charles Albert granted on 8 February 1848, in force from 4 March[1]. With the Kingdom of Italy proclaimed on 17 March 1861, Turin became its first capital, and the first Italian Parliament met at Palazzo Carignano[6].

The lost capital

In September 1864 it became known that the capital would move to Florence. On 21 and 22 September the protest concentrated in piazza San Carlo and was put down by force: according to MuseoTorino 42 people died and 123 were wounded, while according to Torino Oggi the figures were 52 and 187[7][6]. The city council's inquiry commission closed the case with a finding of «no grounds for prosecution»[7]. With the government's departure, in 1865, the population fell from 220,000 to 190,000 inhabitants[1]. Three centuries after Emanuele Filiberto's choice, the «decapitalized city» had to reinvent itself[7].

A distinguished visitor of those years of readjustment was Friedrich Nietzsche, who arrived on 21 September 1888 and took a room overlooking Palazzo Carignano. He described his lodgings to his friend Heinrich Köselitz as follows[8]:

«My room, a first-rate position in the centre, sun from morning to afternoon, a view of Palazzo Carignano, of piazza Carlo Alberto and, in the distance, the green mountains»

Friedrich Nietzsche, letter to Heinrich Köselitz, 1888

The city of FIAT

Already by 1889 metalworking employed 40% of Turin's workers[1]. On 11 July 1899, at Palazzo Bricherasio, nine partners including Giovanni Agnelli signed the founding deed of FIAT; the first workshop, on corso Dante, opened in 1900 with 35 workers and 24 cars produced[9]. Between 1914 and 1916, with the war, the population rose from 456,400 to 525,000 inhabitants, and over the following twenty years it went from half a million to 700,000[10].

On 15 May 1939 Mussolini inaugurated the Mirafiori plant, built from 1937 on Agnelli's initiative, calling it the «perfect factory of the fascist age»; the workers' reception was icy, and the head of government left the ceremony early[11]. During the war the city, hit hard by Allied bombing, lost nearly half its inhabitants[1][10]. The liberation began with the CLN's signal «Aldo dice 26x1», on the night of 26 April 1945: the city's partisan formations held Turin for thirty-six hours, and on 28 April the CLN took up residence in the prefecture, while the Allies arrived on 3 May[12]. On 18 May the Resistance member Giorgio Agosti wrote to Carlo Dionisotti[12]:

«The finest days were those of the uprising, which was silent, disciplined, utterly resolute.»

Giorgio Agosti, letter to Carlo Dionisotti, 18 May 1945

The million mark and migration from the South

With the economic boom, Turin grew from 753,000 inhabitants in 1953 to 1,114,000 in 1963[13]. Between 1951 and 1962 about half of the new residents came from southern Italy; at the 1971 census the city was home to 106,413 people from Apulia, 77,589 from Sicily and 44,723 from Calabria, as well as 65,741 from Veneto[10][13]. The «Treno del Sole» took twenty-three hours from Sicily to Porta Nuova station, and signs reading «not rented to southerners» appeared on building entrances[13].

The crisis arrived with the 1980s. In October 1980 the March of the Forty Thousand by managers and office workers closed the long dispute at FIAT, and manufacturing industry lost 23,000 jobs[1]. The population fell back below a million: 869,312 residents at the 2011 census[1].

After the factory

Winning the bid in 1999 for the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics gave the city a strong push toward renewal[1]. In the wake of the Games came the first line of the metro, the burial of the railway line beneath the Spina Centrale, and the pedestrianization of piazza San Carlo; tourist arrivals rose from under 600,000 in 2002 to 2.7 million in 2023[14]. The Olympic arena, now the Inalpi Arena, has hosted the ATP Finals since 2021 and staged the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest; other venues up in the valley, such as the Cesana bobsled track, have instead been closed for years[14].

Turin today

The municipality, the City of Turin, is divided into eight districts, heirs to the decentralization introduced by law 278 of 1976: from the centre and the Quadrilatero to District 8, which brings together San Salvario, Borgo Po, Cavoretto, Nizza Millefonti and Lingotto[15]. In the runoff of 18 October 2021 Stefano Lo Russo, the centre-left candidate, won more than 59% against Paolo Damilano, succeeding Chiara Appendino; turnout stopped at 42%[16]. At the end of 2025 residents numbered 856,745, about 6,000 more than at the start of the year: a reversal after years of decline[17].

The Apple employee strike (18 September 2026)

On 18 September 2026, the day of the launch of the new generation of iPhones, employees of Apple stores took part in a 24-hour national strike called by the unions Filcams Cgil, Fisascat Cisl and UilTucs. In Turin a picket was held outside the store at via Roma 82, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

About 170 employees work in the city, between the via Roma store and the one at the Le Gru shopping centre. The protest concerned above all workloads and the stabilization of temporary staff, who according to the unions make up about 10% of personnel; national workers' assemblies had been held on 7 September 2026.

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The protest against Roberto Vannacci (18 September 2026)

On 18 September 2026 the former general and MEP Roberto Vannacci, leader of Futuro Nazionale, speaks at a conference on urban security organized by the Fsp police union at the NH hotel on corso Vittorio Emanuele II. His presence is accompanied by a picket organized by the Askatasuna social centre together with student collectives and movements, with a banner reading «No general for any war. Vannacci out of Turin»; a march crosses the city centre, causing traffic slowdowns and route changes for Gtt lines 55, 60, 68 and Star 1. During the conference, a woman in the audience stands and challenges Vannacci's speech and is escorted out of the hall; the former general calls her «rude» and «undemocratic». In his speech, Vannacci also criticizes mayor Stefano Lo Russo for the decision to build a mosque in a district where, he claims, foreigners make up more than 30% of the population.

In a statement issued on the eve of the event, Anpi recalls the Turin massacre of December 1922, when fascists killed eleven people including the secretary of the Camera del Lavoro, Pietro Ferrero, and the Turinese partisans who fell during the Resistance, including Ignazio Vian, Giuseppe Bravin, Giovanni Costanzo, Dante Di Nanni and Emanuele Artom, calling Vannacci's presence in the city «offensive» for a city that holds a gold medal for military valour and is proudly antifascist. The statement is also signed by, among others, Arci, Cgil, Fiom, the Coordinamento Antifascista Torino and Avs Coordinamento Provinciale Torino.

Related articles: Augusta Taurinorum, Protests over Roberto Vannacci's visit to Turin (18 September 2026), Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, FIAT, Roberto Vannacci, Victor Emmanuel II

Sources

  1. Treccani, Enciclopedia on line
  2. MuseoTorino
  3. MuseoTorino
  4. MuseoTorino
  5. UNESCO World Heritage Centre
  6. Torino Oggi — 12 August 2023
  7. MuseoTorino
  8. Fucine Mute —
  9. ANSA — 11 July 2020
  10. MuseoTorino
  11. MuseoTorino
  12. MuseoTorino
  13. MuseoTorino
  14. Il Post — 28 March 2024
  15. Mole24 — 17 December 2023
  16. Il Post — 18 October 2021
  17. Mole24 — 3 January 2026
  18. TorinoOggi — 18 September 2026
  19. TorinoToday — 18 September 2026
  20. CronacaQui Torino — 18 September 2026
  21. Obiettivo News — 17 September 2026

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