The Italian Risorgimento National Museum
The Italian Risorgimento National Museum
The Risorgimento Museum of Torino is the only “national” and the first one in Italy. It was opened to the public for the first time in 1899, and it was moved to the Mole Antonelliana in 1908. In 1938 it was finally transfered to its final and current venue, in Palazzo Carignano, side to side with the two rooms of the Subalpine Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy.
The Palace, where king Carlo Alberto and king Vittorio Emanuele II were born, is one of the most eclectic Baroque buildings, made in 1679-1684 by Guarino Guarini, who was inspired by Bernini’s plans for the Louvre of Louis XIV. It was expanded in the eighteenth century with a new facade overlooking piazza Carlo Alberto, establishing a diologue with the opposite facade of the former stables of the prince of Carignano.
After the 2006 Olympic Games, the Risorgimento Museum was closed to undergo a complete rearrangement for 2011. The project – funded by the Regione Piemonte and the Compagnia di San Paolo – envisages the restoring of the venue and the re-planning of the museum layout according to new exhibition criteria.
The goal is to make the Museum up-to-date and to promote its huge patrimony, formed of more than 25,000 pieces. The scientific test of all these finds has led to the selection of 2,600 objects (most of which have never been displayed before). The planning of the collection’s rearrangement is by Richard Peduzzi, former Director of the Academy of France in Rome. The Museum, besides the collection on display, has also a valuable patrimony of documents – a library with a newspaper and periodical section, the historical archives and an iconographic room.
