Vale, Valentino's new cultural hub
«Vale» — short for Valentino and an allusion to the value ("valore") of culture — is the name of Turin's new cultural hub, announced on 16 September 2026, which brings together in a single project the Parco del Valentino, the Teatro Nuovo, the Borgo Medievale, the Politecnico's new campus, the Orto Botanico (Botanical Garden) and the university spaces on Corso Massimo d'Azeglio. The overall value of the operation exceeds €200 million, with contributions from the City of Turin, foundations and universities.
At the heart of the project is the new Central Civic Library, which opens to the public on 11 December 2026 and whose cultural programming has been entrusted to Maurizia Rebola, formerly director of the Circolo dei Lettori and, at the time of the announcement, director of the OGR. The building's conversion was designed by the engineering firm Icis together with the Isolarchitetti studio of Turin and Rafael Moneo's studio in Madrid.
Among the funders, the Compagnia di San Paolo has invested over €24 million in restoring the Borgo Medievale, while the Fondazione Crt has allocated a further €7 million, on top of the €32 million already committed to the city, according to its president Annamaria Poggi. Mayor Stefano Lo Russo called the initiative "one of the largest urban projects in Turin's recent history".
Ahead of the opening, from November 2026 a calendar of "off" events previews the programme: on 5 November, at the Gallerie d'Italia, writer Chiara Valerio discusses the continuing relevance of Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose"; on 10 November, in the OGR's Sala Fucine, Boosta and Matteo Caccia present "Le città inudibili" ("The Unhearable Cities"), paired with Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities"; on 12 November, in the Reale Mutua auditorium, Paolo Giordano reads from Jorge Luis Borges's "The Library of Babel". The 2026-2028 programme is supported by Reale Mutua.
The "Bosco Civico" ("Civic Forest") series, devoted to dialogue between nature, science and literature, will bring to the new building's Sala Nervi writer Dacia Maraini, philosopher Telmo Pievani and scientist Stefano Mancuso. In the season after the opening, the hub will also host the tenth edition of Biennale Democrazia, alongside events from the Torino Jazz Festival, the Salone del Libro, the MITO festival and the Giornate della Legalità.
Related articles: Biblioteca civica centrale, Parco del Valentino, Presentation of the Vale Project in Turin, Stefano Lo Russo, VALE, VALE, the Valentino Cultural Hub, is Born
Sources
- la Repubblica Torino — 17 September 2026
- ANSA Piemonte — 16 September 2026