Mole Antonelliana
Mole Antonelliana mierzaca 167 metrow wysokosci jest najwazniejszym i najpiekniejszym punktem panoramy miasta. Ta polozona w centrum miasta (pomiedzy Piazza Castello a Piazza Vittorio) wieza przyciaga kazdego dnia licznych turystow pragnacych z gory podziwiac panorame stolicy Piemontu. Na sam szczyt tarasu widokowego zawozi nas przezroczysta winda, ktora juz sama w sobie jest dla wielu atrakcja.
Widoki z wiezy sa naprawde warte zobaczenia i uwiecznienia na fotografiach.
IN ITALIANO
La Mole Antonelliana è il monumento simbolo della città di Torino. Situata nel centro storico di Torino, a ridosso del quartiere Vanchiglia, prende il nome dall' architetto che la costruì, Alessandro Antonelli. Raggiunge un'altezza di 167,5 metri ed è, attualmente, l'edificio più alto d' Italia e l'edificio in muratura più alto d' Europa.
La massiccia parte inferiore è costruita in muratura ed è a base quadrata; sopra di essa si innalza una cupola. Il guscio della cupola, che ne rappresenta anche lo schema strutturale, è formato da due muri sottili (12 cm di spessore) separati tra di loro da una distanza di 2 metri. All'ingresso della struttura vi è un pronao a colonne, mentre al di sopra della cupola vi sono un piano aggiuntivo colonnato (il cosiddetto "Tempietto") e una guglia rinforzata internamente in acciaio assai sviluppata in altezza.
Il cosiddetto "Tempietto" (a circa metà altezza, a quota 85,24 m) è raggiungibile mediante un ascensore che risale al centro la cupola della Mole, dando ai visitatori una panoramica interna a 360 gradi.
IN ENGLISH
The Mole Antonelliana is a major landmark of Turin. It is named for the architect who built it, Alessandro Antonelli. Construction began in 1863 and was completed 26 years later, after the architect's death. Nowadays it houses the National Museum of Cinema, and it is believed to be the tallest museum in the world.
The building was conceived and constructed as a synagogue. The Jewish 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 1860-64. The community, with a budget of 250,000 lira and the intention of having a building worthy of a capital city, hired Antonio Antonelli. Antonelli was notable for having recently added an "idiosyncratic" 121 metre-high dome and spire to the seventeenth-century Church of San Gaudenzio at Novara. He promised to build a synagogue for 280,000 lira. The relationship between Antonelli and the Jewish community was not a happy one. He immediately began to propose a series of modifications which raised the final height to 113 meters, over 47 meters 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 removal of the Italian capital to Florence 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 handsome Moorish Revival synagogue was quickly built. The Mole was dedicated to Victor Emmanuel II. Antonelli again began construction, which took the height to 146, 153, and finally 167 meters (548 feet). From 1908 to 1938, the city used it to house its Museum of the Risorgimento, which was moved to the Palazzo Carignano in 1938.
On 23 May 1953 a violent cloudburst, accompanied by a tornado, destroyed the uppermost 47 metres of the pinnacle, which was rebuilt in 1961 as a metal structure covered with stone.