Buildings of historical importance
Villa Gualino (Torino)
Category: Buildings of historical importance
Riccardo Gualino was an illuminati industrialist and an important figure for Italy’s history during the 1920s and 1930s. The design of his house, on the hills of Torino, was the intellectual manifesto of a circle of artists and intellectuals such as: painters Gigi Chessa and Felice Casorati, critic Lionello Venturi, musicologist Gatti; who cooperated on a project aimed at modernizing the arts, which went so far as to include cinema when they created Lux Film.
The villa lies within a large park and it was designed to have the shape of “due braccia terminanti con due pugni, dominate al centro e più in alto dalla casa di abitazione” (two arms ending in two fists, dominated at the centre and above them by the house): it was almost a remake of the portrait that Gualino dedicated to patron Felice Casorati. According to this design for Gualino’s house-museum, which was only partially completed, the two wings would have housed rich art collections, while the structures at both ends would have housed temporary exhibitions and a theatre, which would have been a state-of-the-art centre for the study of dramatic art and opera. Finally, in the park there would have been a tennis court, a swimming pool, the greenhouses, a vegetable garden and an orchard. Today, Villa Gualino is home to prestigious institutions operating in progressive scientific research and education. Villa Gualino has since 1994 housed the seat of the European Foundation for Education, which is the first Agency established in Italy by the European Union to support reforms in educational and professional training in partner countries of Eastern Europe.
Information
Viale Settimio Severo, 63 - 10133 Torino
Tel. +39.011.6603555
E-mail: info@villagualino.net
www.villagualino.net
