5/5 Ivan M. 3 years ago on Google
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
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-century Basilica
of
San
Gaudenzio in Novara 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)
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
transfer
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.[5] The
Mole
was
dedicated
to Victor
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
a five-pointed
star,
but
he
later
opted
for
a
statue
instead,
depicting
a
winged genie,
or
"genio
alato"
-
one
symbol
of
the House
of
Savoy.
The
statue
was
commissioned
to
the
sculptor
Fumagalli,
months
after
Antonelli's
death.
The
design
included
an
embossed
and
gilded copper genie
holding
a lance in
one
hand
and
a palm
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
April
10,
1889,
it
brought
the
total
height
of
the
Mole
to
167.5 m
(550 ft),
making
it
the
tallest
brick
building
in Europe at
the
time.[6]
From
1908
to
1938,
the
city
used
the
Mole
to
house
its Museum
of
the
Risorgimento,
which
was
moved
to
the Palazzo
Carignano in
1938.
The
Mole
Antonelliana
is
the
tallest
unreinforced
brick
building
in
the
world
(built
without
a
steel
girder
skeleton).
RepairsEdit
On
August
11,
1904,[7] a
violent
storm
caused
the
winged
genie
to
collapse,
but
miraculously
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
the Second
World
War,
the
building
largely
escaped
the
bombings
of
December
6,
1942,
which
hit
many
military
targets
in
nearby
Via
Verdi,
and
destroyed
the
neighbouring
Teatro
di
Torino.[9]
On
May
23,
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
the
Museo
Nazionale
del
Cinema
(National
Museum
of
Cinema).
The
Mole
appears
on
the
reverse
of
the
two-cent
Italian
euro
coins
and
was
the
inspiration
for
the
official
emblem
of
the
2006
Winter
Olympics,
as
well
as
those
of
the
2005
World
Bocce
Championships
and
the
2006
World
Fencing
Championships.
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