Saving Turin's Great Cultural Heritage

AN INTERVIEW WITH ARTEO ATELIER IN TURIN

Corso San Martino. Pictorial integration © Arteo Atelier

Arteo Atelier and Arteo Living are architectural and art restoration firms headed by Architect Cristina Corvino

MEB3: Could you please give us a summary of the prevailing architectural style in the downtown area of Turin? How did it get to the present shape?

Cristina Corvino (C.C.): To narrate my story, I have to start from the history of my city. Turin is a very ancient city; the first settlements date back to the 1st-century A.D. When the Roman emperor Julius Caesar chose the area as a strategic location for his military camp, which later became a colony called Julia Taurinorum. The definitive foundation called a "castrum" (fortified military camp) can still be seen in the typical chessboardlike road structure laid out by his son Augusto and is known as Augusta Taurinorum. This structure was based on astronomical studies linked to the rising of the sun on its axis with the Decumano (in Roman planning, an eastwest oriented road). This main road, Decumano Massimo, is now known as Via Garibaldi, and it connected the two doors to the east and west of the city.