Museums and galleries in Turin

Museums and galleries in Turin

1. See

   Castello di Rivoli

   Museo d'Arte Contemporanea

   The hilltop castle was built around 900 AD but from the 17th century had so many incomplete extensions, abandoned or wrecked by the French, that owners and architects risked being driven mad. One who did go mad was King Victor Amadeus II (1666-1732), who horrified noble society by publicly marrying his mistress here; he was deposed and incarcerated within the castle to stop him declaring war on Milan or Poland or heaven knows where. The building later became a barracks but fell derelict until restored in the 1980s. It's now a museum of contemporary art.

   Wed-Fri 10:00-17:00, Sat Sun 11:00-18:00·Adult €10, conc €6.50

2. See

   Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist

   Duomo; Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista

   Large elegant cathedral dating from late 15th century, enlarged in the 17th to create the Chapel for the Shroud of Turin. However this chapel (rebuilt after a fire in 1997) is nowadays accessed as part of a tour of Palazzo Reale and can't be seen from the Cathedral; visit the nearby Sindone Museum to see a copy of the Shroud.

   Daily 09:00-13:00 & 15:00-19:00·Free

3. See

   Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

   Art exhibition gallery in a former automobile factory and outdoor sculpture park.

   Thu 20:00-23:00, Fri-Sun 12:00-19:00·Adult €7, conc €5

4. See

   Foundation Accorsi-Ometto

   Decorative Arts Museum

   Extensive display of furniture, painting and other decorative art.

   Tue Wed Fri-Sun 10:00-18:00, Thu 10:00-20:00·Adult €14, conc €12

5. See

   Galleria d'Italia

   Galleria d'Italia is a museum chain to show off the art owned by Intesa Sanpaolo bank, the modern nobility. The Turin branch, opened in 2022, is in the Palazzo Turinetti di Pertengo and mostly displays photography. Their others are in Milan, Naples and Vicenza.

   Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00·Adult €10

6. Do

   Juventus FC

   "Juve", founded in 1897, play soccer in Serie A, Italy's top tier, and have almost never been out of the top flight. Allianz Stadium, capacity 41,000, has a club museum.

   Mon Wed-Sun 10:30-19:00

7. See

   Mole Antonelliana

   National Cinema Museum

   The Mole, Turin's landmark building built in 1888, was intended as a synagogue but the size and cost got out of hand and the Jewish community never used it. The 167.5-metre tower is the highest work of masonry in Europe and you can ride a lift to the cupola at the top. Within it, the National Cinema Museum is a vast exhibition space spiralling up five floors. The themes of the floors are the archaeology of cinema, the video camera, a collection of cinema posters, video installations (with side rooms screening clips), and the Great Temple where you recline in comfy red chairs and watch — or is it worship? — Italian film classics projected on giant screens overhead. Artefacts include magic lanterns, optical illusions, photographs, drawings, models, props and costumes, such as the original cape worn by Christopher Reeve in Superman in 1978.

   Wed-Fri, Sun Mon 09:00-19:00, Sat 09:00-22:00·Museum €12, lift €9

8. See

   Museo Egizio

   "The road to Memphis and Thebes passes through Turin" said Egyptologist Jean-François Champollion about Museo Egizio in Turin, second only in order of importance to the one in Cairo. Many artifacts were collected by Bernardino Drovetti (1776 - 1852) when he was consul of France in Egypt. In 1824, King Carlo Felice di Savoia purchased the diplomat's entire collection and housed it in the palace built in the 17th century by design of architect Michelangelo Garove (which was firstly Collegio dei Nobili, then seat of Accademia delle Scienze and still houses the museum). The visit begins with floor -1 hypogeous with History of the Museum (highlights - Mensa Isiaca, statue of Isis from Coptos, Iuefankh's Book of the Dead); taking the escalator we reach floor 2 with Material Culture Galleries, Predynastic, Old Kingdom, Textiles Gallery, Tomb of the Unknown (intact), Tomb of Iti and Neferu, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom (highlights - Gebelein Canvas, pleated tunics, faience hippo statuette, statue of Aanen, statue of Hel); taking Sanpaolesi staircase we reach floor 3 with Writing Gallery (highlights - double cartouche from Temple of the Aten, Papyrus of Kings, Judicial Papyrus, pyramidion from the Tomb of Ramose); returning to floor 2, then descending Mazzucchetti staircase we reach floor 1 with Village of Deir el-Medina, In Search of Life (human remains), Egyptian Gardens (on the terrace), Tomb of Kha and Merit (intact), Coffin Gallery, Valley of the Queens, Late Period, Ptolemaic Period, Roman and Late Antique Period (highlights - statue of Pendua and Nefertari, Erotic-Satirical Papyrus, Maya Chapel, Butehamon Coffin, animal mummies, amulets); the visit ends taking Mazzucchetti staircase to floor 0 with Gallery of Kings and Temple of Ellesiya (highlights - statues of Ramses II, Sethi II, Tutmosis III, Sekhmet). Analog services: cloakroom (floor -1 hypogeous), rest area "Caffè con ME" (reached from Room 7), museum shop (floor -1 hypogeous), kids area "Spazio ZeroSei Egizio"

   Mon 09:00-14:00; Tue-Sun 09:00-18:30·Ticket online (suggested)

9. See

   Museum of Criminal Anthropology

   Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) was convinced that criminality was inherited, little influenced by environment and that criminals could be distinguished by their ugly atavistic features. It therefore followed that any ethnic group that didn't fit Italian concepts of beauty was inferior and should be subjugated. And women should be subjugated by men, as their much lower rate of criminal offending proved that, um, well anyway because they should. When Lombroso met Tolstoy, he rather spoiled the occasion by trying to measure Tolstoy's skull for signs of Slav atavism. His theories greatly suited the far right in Europe but were discredited after the fall of Mussolini. This museum displays his dingbat collection, but perhaps his legacy best lives on in the portrayal of film baddies.

   Mon-Sat 10:00-18:00

10. See

    Museum of Oriental Art

    MAO

    This museum houses art from Kandahar, India, Southeast Asia, China and Japan. The third floor shows Buddhist and Tibetan culture. The fourth floor is Islamic and Arabian, mainly bronzes, ceramics and tiles.

    Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00·Adult €10, conc €8

11. See

    Museum of The New Prison

    Museo Carceri Le Nuove

    Spooky museum of prisons and punishments. Visit by guided tour; booking is recommended, and essential for the descent into the air raid shelter.

    Tours daily 15:00·Adult €8, conc €5

12. See

    Museum of the Shroud

    Museo della Sindone

    The original Sindone or Turin Shroud is in safekeeping in the Cathedral and rarely displayed. This small museum displays a copy and studies the Shroud. It's a remarkable object whatever it is, a 4.4 x 1.1 m winding sheet charred by fire and appearing to bear the likeness of a man, matching the Gospel description of the crucifixion of Jesus. Multiple tests have produced contradictory results, or at least contradictory interpretations. It's only reliably known to have existed since 1390 when it was denounced as a forgery, and radio-carbon dating matches that. But no deliberate attempt to reproduce it has managed to capture all its qualities, especially the 3D effect of its photo negative, and neither natural nor artificial processes convincingly explain it. So just look and wonder.

    Daily 15:00-18:00·Adult €8, conc €6

13. See

    Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi

    Royal hunting lodge built from 1729, and like Veneria Reale its embellishments then got out of hand to create something a Disney princess would swoon over, grand halls and galleries and salons with putti and nymphs in industrial quantities. It houses a huge collection of Piedmontese furniture in its Rococo interiors. Outside is the Parco naturale, the hunting park and gardens, but Fritz the resident elephant has long gone.

    Tue-Fri 10:00-17:30, Sat Sun 10:00-18:30·Adult €13.80, conc €9.50

14. See

    Palazzo Reale

    The Palace was built in the 16th century, modernised in the 17th and converted to a museum in 1946. The result is a wacky hybrid of medieval, baroque and bling. You enter via the palace gardens to reach the ticket office. The ticket covers five attractions: - Galleria Sabauda houses the vast art collection of the rulers of Savoy. - Chapel of the Shroud is accessed this way, and from a gallery looks into the Cathedral. - Royal Apartments: gilt, red flock, chandeliers, vast paintings, and everything else to impress. - Royal Armoury: dating from the 16th century, the 1833 collection of Sardinian king Carlo Alberto. - Royal Library: this contains some 200,000 print volumes, 4500 manuscripts, 3055 drawings, 187 incunabula predating 1501, 5019 16th-century books, 20,987 pamphlets, 1500 works on parchment, 1112 periodicals, and 400 photo albums, maps, engravings, and prints. It contains several works Leonardo da Vinci's: Codex on the Flight of Birds, his self-portrait, his study for the angel in his Virgin of the Rocks and his study for the angel in Verrocchio's The Baptism of Christ.

    Tue-Sun 09:00-19:00·Adult €15

15. See

    Pietro Micca Museum

    In 1706 the French besieged Turin for four months as part of the War of Spanish Succession, which embroiled all major European powers and their colonies. The defending Savoyards had dug 15 km of counter-sapping tunnels, to prevent the French burrowing in. That meant the French could only attack ineffectively from a distance. Pietro Micca sacrificed himself in detonating a tunnel that they were breaking into; a few days later the siege was broken by arriving reinforcements. Nine km of preserved galleries can be visited.

    Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00·Adult €5, conc €3

16. See

    Risorgimento Museum

    Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano

    Fascinating exposition of the tumultuous birth of modern Italy, set in the very building where many events took place: Carlo Alberto and Vittorio Emanuele II were born here, and the first Italian parliament sat here. Garibaldi's campaign was in the context of revolutions and upheavals all over Europe, the greatest of all being the Industrial Revolution. It was a very literary and graphic age, so events are vividly shown in film, photos, political cartoons and other artefacts.

    Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00·Adult €10, conc €8

17. See Not mapped

    Museo Civico d'Arte Antica

    Museum of Ancient Art

    This museum is within Palazzo Madama on Piazza Castello. It's misnamed, as the art collection is Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque, and more ancient (eg Byzantine) work is elsewhere.

    Wed-Sun 10:00-18:00·Adult €10, conc €8

18. See

    MACA

    Museo A come Ambiente

    Science museum, child-oriented, limited English signage.

    Sat Sun 14:00-19:00 (Mon-Fri school groups only)·Adult €12, conc or child €6

19. See Not mapped

    Botanic Museum

    Small collection and somewhat run down.

    Apr-Oct: Sat 14:30-18:00, Sun 10:00-13:00, 14:30-18:00·Adult €5, conc or child €3

Listings from the Wikivoyage guide to Turin (CC BY-SA 4.0).