Città di Torino

BLUE route

Along the Po river: nature, science and technology.

A walk through Valentino Park, to know some of the places where scientific tradition in Turin was born, ending at the “Museo dell’Automobile”, one of the city symbols.

Museums' visitor information:

• Orto Botanico
• Borgo e Rocca Medievale
• Museo di Anatomia Umana “Luigi Rolando”
• Museo della Frutta “Francesco Garnier Valletti”
• Museo di Antropologia Criminale “Cesare Lombroso”
• Museo dell'Automobile “Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia”

Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, a great arterial road opened in 1814, from Porta Nuova railway station leads to the Po river.
The Parco del Valentino, the best known city park in Turin, is situated along the left riverside of the Po.

The name is of uncertain origin, it may derive from an ancient chapel dedicated to San Valentino. Its first nucleus goes back to the sixteenth century, but just in the nineteenth century a project was undertaken by the French architect  Pierre Barrillet-Dechamps. You will find some notable buildings within the park.

The Società Promotrice delle Belle Arti (Fine Art Society), constituted in 1842 by the Count of Benevello, had famous artists as Giorgio De Chirico, Alvar Aalto e Le Corbusier among its most distinguished members.  In 1914 it was moved into its present home within the Parco del Valentino, in a neoclassical and liberty building designed by Enrico Bonicelli and Davide Calandra. It hosts temporary exhibitions.

Castello del Valentino’s first nucleus goes back to the sixteenth century, but the building was transformed and restructured on design by the Castellamonte brothers in the following century, at the behest of Christine Marie of France, Vittorio Amedeo I’s wife. A further structural intervention was made in 1858 to raise the lateral galleries in order to  transform them into exhibition areas. The castle has two different facades: the one looking towards the town is in Baroque style with a great Courtyard Of Honour; whereas the other, looking towards the Po river, is a terracotta facade in a river villa style. Nowadays it is the home of the Facoltà di Architettura del Politecnico di Torino (Faculty of Architecture of Turin Polytechnic University).

On the left side of the castle, an area of 27,000 squared meters is occupied by the Orto Botanico (Botanic Garden).

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