Piazza Solferino, in Turin, is a vast, elegant rectangle. It was formerly known as the Piazza del Bosco (forest square) because of the wood market there. Partially destroyed during WWII, the new buildings were much criticised at the time (“rather dubious architecture” was Marziano Bernardi’s comment). The square is studded with monuments with Alfonso Balzico’s equestrian statue of Ferdinand of Savoy in the centre. To one side is a small bust of the historian Giuseppe La Farina. More famous, and picturesque, is the Fontana Angelica, designed by sculptor Giovanni Riva in 1930 as a tribute from the minister Paolo Bajnotti to his mother Angelica Cugiani. In keeping with other monuments in Turin, this fountain has been described as a “place of magic” and attributed an esoteric significance of symbols linked to typically Masonic rituals.
Built in 1858 and designed by Lorenzo Panizza, Teatro Alfieri looks onto Piazza Solferino and has been destroyed (by fire and bombing) and rebuilt more than once. The elegant residential palaces around the square include Palazzo Ceriana which dates to the second half of the 19th century and is today the head offices of an insurance company. In the small porticoed section of the square is the long-standing Caffè Norman, an elegant bar and pastry shop apparently much loved by Cavour.
Film Commission Torino Piemonte
Via Cagliari 42 — 10153 Torino
Phone: +39 011 2379201
Fax: +39 011 2379298
Email: info@fctp.it
