| Mole Antonelliana | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Location | Turin, Italy |
| Current tenants | Museo Nazionale del Cinema |
| Construction started | 1863 |
| Completed | 1889; 136 years ago (1889) |
| Renovated | 1953 |
| Height | |
| Architectural | 167.5 metres (550 ft)[1][2] |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Alessandro Antonelli |
TheMole Antonelliana (pronounced[ˈmɔːleantonelˈljaːna]) is a majorlandmark building inTurin, Italy, named after its architect,Alessandro Antonelli. Amole inItalian is a building of monumental proportions.
Construction began in 1863, soon afterItalian unification, and was completed in 1889, after the architect's death. Originally conceived of as asynagogue, it now houses theMuseo Nazionale del Cinema (National Museum of Cinema), and is believed to be the tallest museum in the world.[3] A representation of the building is featured on the obverse of the Italian2 euro cent coin.Catalan vaults are featured in the ceiling of the ground floor under the atrium, which are relatively rare in Italy but popular in Spain, where they originated.
The building was conceived and constructed as asynagogue. TheJewish community of Turin had enjoyed full civil rights since 1848, and at the time the construction of the synagogue began, Turin was the capital of the new Italian state, a position it held only from 1860 to 1864. The community, with a budget of 250,000 lire and the intention of having a building worthy of a capital city, hired Alessandro Antonelli. Antonelli had recently added a 121 m (397 ft) dome and spire to the seventeenth-centuryBasilica of San Gaudenzio inNovara and promised to build a synagogue for 280,000 lire.[4]
The relationship between Antonelli and the Jewish community was not happy. He proposed a series of modifications which raised the final height to 167.5 m (550 ft),[1][2] over 46 m (151 ft) higher than the dome in the original design. Such changes, in addition to greater costs and construction time than were originally anticipated, did not please the Jewish community and construction was halted in 1869, with a provisional roof.
With the transfer of the Italian capital toFlorence in 1864, the community shrank, but costs and Antonelli's ambition continued to rise. In 1876, the Jewish community, which had spent 692,000 lire for a building that was still far from finished, announced that it was withdrawing from the project. The people of Turin, who had watched the synagogue rise skyward, demanded that the city take over the project, which it did. An exchange was arranged between the Jewish community and the city of Turin for a piece of land on which a handsomeMoorish Revivalsynagogue was quickly built.[5] The Mole was dedicated toVictor Emmanuel II. Antonelli resumed construction, increasing the height to 146 m (479 ft), 153 m (502 ft), and finally 167.5 m (550 ft). He worked on the project until his death in October 1888.
Antonelli's original vision for the spire was to top it off with afive-pointed star, but he later opted for a statue instead, depicting an angel, or "genio alato"—one symbol of theHouse of Savoy. The statue was commissioned to the sculptor Fumagalli, months after Antonelli's death. The design included an embossed and gildedcopper genie holding alance in one hand and apalm branch in the other. On its head was a small five-pointed star supported by a pole. When the star was set in its place on 10 April 1889, it brought the total height of the Mole to 167.5 m (550 ft), making it the tallest brick building inEurope at the time.[6]
From 1908 to 1938, the city used the Mole to house itsMuseum of the Risorgimento, which was moved to thePalazzo Carignano in 1938.
The Mole Antonelliana is the tallest unreinforced brick building in the world (built without a steel girder skeleton).
On 11 August 1904,[7] a violent storm caused the winged genie to collapse, but it stayed suspended against one of the terraces of the structure.[8] Following reconstruction work, it was replaced by a 5-pointed star made of copper and measuring 4 meters in diameter. The design, by Ernesto Ghiotti, was similar to the original one seen on the head of the genie, and fell in 1953: it has been later replaced by a smaller three-dimensional, 12-pointed star.
During theSecond World War, the building largely escaped the bombings of 6 December 1942, which hit many military targets in nearby Via Verdi, and destroyed the neighbouring Teatro di Torino.[9]
On 23 May 1953, a violent cloudburst, accompanied by a tornado, destroyed the uppermost 47 m (154 ft) of the pinnacle, which was rebuilt in 1961 as a metal structure faced with stone.Guido Chiarelli carried out the project for the lighting of the pinnacle, at the end of the reconstruction work.
Since 2000, the building has housed theMuseo Nazionale del Cinema. The Mole appears on the reverse of thetwo-centItalian euro coins and was the inspiration for the officialemblem of the2006 Winter Olympics, as well as those of the 2005 WorldBocce Championships and the2006 World Fencing Championships.
The building also lent its name to one of Italian football's oldest derbies, theDerby della Mole, between Turin football clubsTorino andJuventus.[10]
On one side of the four-faced dome, the firstFibonacci numbers are written with redneon lights: they are part of the artistic workIl volo dei Numeri (Flight of the Numbers) byMario Merz.
In December 2017, the Mole was illuminated with over 6000LED lights, an unprecedented event to mark 110 years since the establishment of Aem Torino, Iren, a company that supplies electricity to the city.[11]
Friedrich Nietzsche greatly admired the building, associating it with the figureZarathustra and wrote, "Earlier I walked past the Mole Antonelliana, perhaps the most brilliant work of architecture ever built—strangely, it has no name—as a result of an absolute drive into the heights—it recalls nothing so much as my Zarathustra. I baptized itEcce homo and in that spirit placed an enormous free space around it."[12]
The Mole was featured in the fourth leg of the American reality competition showThe Amazing Race 20.
The building (including the interior with its Museum of Cinema) was used extensively in the 2004 Italian filmDopo Mezzanotte (After Midnight).
A stylized version of the building appeared in the logo for the2006 Winter Olympics.
The mascot of the2025 Special Olympics Winter Games, Moly, is anotter with a hat shaped like the Mole.
45°04′08″N7°41′35″E / 45.06889°N 7.69306°E /45.06889; 7.69306
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