Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/121

 TURIN

93

TURIN

(1. .ire five iiiiiicral sniiiips. 'I'lir piipiilalion is (I.IMKI.

Ill -iiics the ruiniorous olemcnlaiy and intrrniedi- (■ -rlH)ls, public and private, there are a university • ■<■ lirlow), a musical lyceum, commercial and indus- i:il schools. The Accademia Albertina (1652), for tr line arts, possesses the precious Mossi Gallery iaphael, Dolci, Caravaggio, Rubens, Van Dyck, ipiici, Andrea del Sarto, Correggio, Luca Giordano, uitcmo, and others, with cartoons of Leonardo da inri and others). There is a royal academy of the II 111 's (1757) and a royal commission on studies in ill 111 history. The documents of the general ar- 11 . IS go back as far .as the year 934. Other institu- iiii~ of sciences and arts are the military academy, 11' Scuola di Guerra, the practical school for the iilliTV and engineers, and eiglit public libraries, ill. iiK them the National (1714). The last-named iiHams the precious Bobbio manuscripts and many n 1 k and Egyptian papyri; in 1904 it was ravaged \- :i fire in which valuable manuscripts perished, iinne them some which had not yet been thoroughly iiiliiii. The Museum of Antiquities is of great npiirtance, containing a number of marbles collected iroughnut Piedmont besides one of the most com- letr Egyptian collections in existence, that made by iTiiarilino Drovetti, a French consul in Egj'pt. .niihy of note also are the Royal Gallery (Pinaco- 11 and the zoological, mineralogical, geological, n iii.inical, and the rich numismatical mu.seum (the iMi; ~ niodallion). Benevolent institutions are the iji' 11 Pia di S. Paolo, which includes the Pious ii-i iMiic (iifficin pill) of Alms for the poor and dowries ir Miuiig girls, and the Monte di PietS,. The hos- iial- are those of S. Giovanni (fourteenth century), f ill.- Order of Sts. Maurice and Lazarus, the Opera 'ia ill S. Luigi (1792), the Ophthalmic Hospital, the 'iiliiilingo (Piccola Casa delta Divina Providenza, )iiniiiil in 1S27 for every kind of human misery, in hiili about 7000 sick, aged, and infirm persons have iiinil shelter), the Royal General Charity Hospice, 111 a-vlum of the Infanzia Abbandonata, theReale villi ri;ii di Virtii (1580). The Opera Pia Barolo has Til I its direction various charitable and educational • if ions. For the Rifugio and Oratory of St. - de Sales, see Bosco. Giovanni Melchior, . sBLE (Don Bosco). V 1 1 KCHES. — The cathedral, dedicated to St. John 111 IVaptist, stands on the site of three ancient liM. his, and was built (1492-98) by Meodel Caprino, . i' I in octagonal dome. .Attached to the cathedral is !i' ' iiapel of the Santissimo Sudario, built by Guarini I'l ' 1. where is preserved in a casket a cloth believed .1 1 I I lie shroud in which the Body of Christ was VI i|i|iiii when it was taken down from the Cross. rill Clmrch of Corpus Domini records a miracle ivliK li took place during the sack of the city in 1453, khen a soldier was carrying off an ostensorium con- laining the Blessed Sacrament : the osten.sorium fell to [he ground, while the Host remained suspended in air. trhe present splendid church, erected in 1610 to re- place the original chapel which stood on the spot, is ihe work of Ascanio Vittozzi. The Consolata, a sanctuary much frequented by pilgrims, stands on the site of the tenth-century mona-stery of .S. Andrea, and is the work of Guarini. It was sumptuously restored in 1903. Outside the city are: S. ^laria Ausiliatrice, i-rected by Don Bosco; the Gran Madre di Dio, srected in 1818 on occasion of the return of King Victor Emanuel I; S. Maria del Monte (I5S.3) on the Monte dei Cappucini; the Basilica of Superga, with a dome 244 feet high, the work of Juvara, built by Amedeo II ex vntn for the deliverance of Turin (1706), and which has served since 1772 as a royal mausoleum. Prof.\ne Edifices.— The Royal Palace (1646-58) contains various splendidly decorated halls and an extremely rich collection of arms of all periods and all

peoples, as well as the king's library. Under the palace the remains of a Roman theatre were discov- ered. The Palazzo Madaiiia stands on the site of the old decuman gate, whii'h biiaine a castle in the Mid- dle Ages and was repeatedly enlarged until, in 171S, it was finally prepared by .luvara for Madama Reale, as she was called, the widow of Charles Emanuel II. It is now iiccupi<'d by the state archives and the observa- tory. The Palazzo Carignano (16S0), a work of Guarini, is the residence of the younger branch of Sa- voy - Carignano, now the reigning house. This pal- ace was occupied bv the Parliament from 1848 to 1864, and now shelters the Museum of Natural History. The Academy of the Sciences, for- merly a Jesuit College (1679), houses the Mu- seum of Antiq- uities and the Pinacoteca. The Palazzo di Citti, or City Hall (1669), the work of Lanfranchi, contains the Bib- lioteca Civica. There is also a Museo Civico di Belle Arti; and the Mole Anto- nelli.ana, 530 feet high, contains the Museo di Risorgimento (1863). The city itself is laid out on a very regular plan.

History. — Before the Roman conquest of the Graian and Cottian Alps, Taurasia was already an important city of the Taurini, a Ligurian people. In 218 B. c. Hannibal destroyed it. Under Augustus the conquest was completed, and the city was named Augusta Taurinorum; it probably continued, how- ever, to form part of the dominions of Cottius, King of Secusio (the modern Susa). In the war between Otho and Vitellius, it was almo.st entirely burned down. None of the l?oman monuments have sur- vived except the Porta Palafina, commonly known as the Towers, near which are the remains of a monu- ment erected early in the second century in honour of Attilius Agricola. In the fifth and sixth centuries the city suffered from the invasions of the Burgundians •and of Odoacer, and in the Gothic War. After the Lombard invasion it became the capital of a duchy, and four of its dukes — Agilulfus (589\ Arioaldus (.590), Garibaldus (661), Ragimbertus (701) — became kings of the Lombards. When the Lombard king- dom fell, Turin became a residence of Frankish counts until, in 892, it passed to the marquesses of Ivrea, from whom, through the marriage of Adelaide with Odo of Savoy (1046), it passed into the po.sse.s- sion of the latter house. In 1130 the city was con- stituted a commune, still remaining, however, under the influence now of the counts of Savoy, now of the mjirquesses of Saluzzo or of Monferrato, with whom, as also with the emperors, they were frequently at war. From 1280 on, it was .almost constantly under the power of the House of Savoy, more particularlv the Acaia branch (129.5-1418). After 14.")9 it w.as the capital of the Duchy of Savoy. In 1.536 it fell into the power of Francis I of France, who est.ablished a parliament there; in 1.562 Emanuel Philibcrt recon- qtiered it. In 1638, during the quarrel of the regency, the city was besieged by the French and defended by