MAGICAL TORINO APE – ITIS PININFARINA

Magic: Turin is full of it, and legend has it that the capital of Piedmont is part of two magic triangles – the triangle of white magic (with Lyon and Prague) and the triangle of black magic (with London and San Francisco). But the magic of Turin is told not only through myths and legends but also through history. Augusta Taurinorum was founded by the Romans at the intersection of two rivers – the Po and the Dora – and respecting the laws of magic that required that a city have four gates facing the four cardinal directions. And thus perhaps Turin’s particular atmosphere, especially in the old historical centre, comes from its ancient founding. In any event, Fruttero and Lucentini have described this atmosphere in their mystery books, and Gustavo Rol (trusted medium of Federico Fellini) was surely influenced by it.

When you look at Turin through the eyes of magic, you discover a different city: a secret and underground one. This Turin is literally hidden under the houses, in the tunnels which run underground, deep beneath the city.

Take Statuto Square for example Take Statuto Square for example. This square might seem to be nothing more than a large and pleasant open space near Porta Susa. But, if you are interested in the magical side of Turin, you’ll learn that this piazza is the “black heart” of the city, and that in this area of the city during Roman times there was a “vallis occisorum” or necropolis (from which comes the name of the nearby city quarter Valdocco). Piazza Statuto was also the site of the gallows of Turin. And if you look closely in the garden of the square you might discern a manhole lid. This manhole leads to a mysterious underground world: most will say it leads to the centre of the sewer system, but some contend that it leads to the Gate of Hell (well, that’s how the legend goes).

If you walk a few hundred meters away from piazza Statuto, you will come to via Michele Lessona where the “Domus Morozzo” once stood. Although there is no trace of it today, Domus Morozzo was the residence in Turin of the most famous fortune-teller of all time: Nostradamus. The curious sites in this area don’t end here – in Santa Maria di Piazza Church there is a painting of the Madonna which some maintain was painted by Saint Luke. Others claim that the veil of the Madonna is buried in a nearby secret location.

If you then head toward via Sant’Agostino, you can walk down the small via Bonelli where the executioner of Turin once lived. From there, in just a few minutes, you can walk to piazza Solferino, one of the main piazzas of the city. In the piazza you’ll notice la Fontana Angelica (fountain), an allegorical representation which portrays, according to the mystics, the Gateway to Infinity.

Continuing a few meters in the same direction, you’ll come to the lovely small square Corpus Domini which houses Corpus Domini Church. This church was built in the 1600's on the exact point of the “Miracle of Turin”. In the year 1453 a thief was attempting to sell stolen sacred good from the Church of Exilles in Val di Susa. Suddenly a shining host rose up from the thief’s sack and hovered suspended in the air.

From Corpus Domini Square you are only a few seconds away from the centre of the city: Piazza Castello (castle Square). Piazza Castello is not only the heart of the city, but it is also the magical heart of the city, or at least in terms of the white magic of Turin. The mystics affirm that the centre of Turin’s positive energy lies near the Royal Palace and then the Duomo, home of the Holy Shroud, a symbol of the positive message of Christianity.

But evil is always lurking about – some believe that the gate of the Royal Palace, framed by the equestrian statues of Castor and Pollux, is actually the threshold which divides the city of saints from the city of devils.

Once you’ve passed the river and Vittorio Square, you’ll come to one of the symbols of Piedmontese mysticism: the Church of the Great Mother of God. Some legends go that the Holy Grail is buried beneath the church, others that one of the statues in front of the church pointed to the direction where the Holy Grail is buried.

By: 4AM - Itis Pininfarina Bibliography: //www.extratorino.it/ //www.powerpointstyles.com/template-93842-electric-field.html Pictures: (free – and courtesy of) //www.mepiemont.net/ //www.fotolibere.it/indice_081_it.php //it.wikipedia.org/wiki/ By: 4AM - Itis Pininfarina