Mole Antonelliana

Mole Antonelliana
Turin's most famous and iconic monument, located in Centro neighbourhood.

Mole is 167m tall and combines neogothic and neoclassical styles.
It has a square shape base that evolves in a tall spike, whose top is garnished with a stone statue of the winged genius.

Since 2000, Mole Antonelliana hosts Cinema's Museum.

History

Mole was meant to be the Turinese Jewish synagogue after 1848 royal Statuto Albertino concession: a chart which among other things, granted freedom of worship.

Jewish community commissionated the construction to Alessandro Antonelli and the original project wanted the synagogue to be only 47m tall.

The tallness of the building was increasing constantly in the facts, hence the costs were unaffordable for the Turinese Jewish community, which preferred to move their holy building to the actual synagogue of Turin.

Mole Antonelliana 1880
Mole in the 19th century before the
construction of its spike
Mole Antonelliana instead, was purchased and finished by the city of Turin, reaching the nowadays 167m of tallness. In 1889 the building was finished, becoming the tallest full masonry construction in
Europe, then bolstered with reinforced concrete.

Atmospheric phenomenons destroyed parts of the building two times: the first when the copper winged genius on the top of the spike was broke down by a storm in 1904, then rebuilt much lighter.

The second damage was even worse: in 1953 a whirlwind broke down the 47m spike, rebuilt in 1961 in metal.

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