Via Garibaldi (Turin)
Via Garibaldi is the pedestrian street linking Piazza Castello to Piazza Statuto, about 963 metres long; it follows the decumanus maximus of Augusta Taurinorum and was known until 1882 as Contrada di Dora Grossa.[1][3][7]
The decumanus
The Roman decumanus, dating to the 1st century AD, connected the Porta Segusina to the gate later incorporated into Palazzo Madama; it had a roadway about 10.5 metres wide paved with polygonal blocks, with pavements and drainage channels, documented by the excavations of Carlo Promis and Alfredo d'Andrade.[1] In the Middle Ages both civil and religious power were based here: the Acaia castle, the town hall and the episcopal complex.[2]
Contrada di Dora Grossa
The name Dora Grossa comes from an ordinance issued by Emanuele Filiberto in 1575, which had water from the Dora channelled along the streets to clear them of snow and refuse: the largest channel ran along this street, and it was removed when the waterway was placed underground between 1823 and 1830.[4] Starting in 1729 Vittorio Amedeo II, together with Filippo Juvarra, began straightening the street, a process regulated by an edict of 27 June 1736 and by provisions issued by Benedetto Alfieri in 1739: cornices at a uniform height, aligned façades, shops on the ground floor and four rentable storeys above; the work was carried out mainly in the late eighteenth century and widened the street from 4-5 metres to about 11.4 metres.[5][2][7] On 5 June 1882 it was named after Giuseppe Garibaldi.[7]
The churches
At the corner with Via XX Settembre stands the Church of the Santissima Trinità, designed by Ascanio Vitozzi between 1590 and 1606.[8] At number 25 is the Church of the Santi Martiri, built between 1577 and 1622 for the Jesuits to a design by Pellegrino Tibaldi, with a vault frescoed by Andrea Pozzo and a high altar by Juvarra.[9] The Church of San Dalmazzo, with origins dating back to around the year 1000, was entrusted to the Antonians in 1271 and to the Barnabites in 1609, and was thoroughly rebuilt in 1855.[10]
The pedestrian street
During the pedestrianisation works at the end of the 1970s, stretches of Emanuele Filiberto's sixteenth-century walls came to light at the corner with Via della Consolata; they are now covered by a slab.[6] The street has always had a commercial character: in 1757 the Cinzano brothers opened a shop here, the origin of the house of vermouth.[11]
Related articles: Cinzano
Pages linking here
Sources
- MuseoTorino
- MuseoTorino
- MuseoTorino
- MuseoTorino
- Torino Oggi — 15 May 2022
- Quotidiano Piemontese — 14 November 2025
- MuseoTorino
- MuseoTorino
- MuseoTorino
- TorinoToday — 5 October 2017