10 Reasons to visit Torino - Part 7. Art Nouveau

The artistic, decorative, and architectural style referred to as Art Nouveau by French speakers, Modernism by Hispanics, Jugendstil by Germans, and Modern Art by English speakers, is called "Liberty" in Italy.

The name derives from a London shop owned by Sir Arthur Liberty, where the early exponents of this style in Italy stocked up on decorative materials, especially wallpaper with Asian-inspired floral motifs. Although this style was popular everywhere between the 19th and 20th centuries, it was in Turin that it was best expressed in both quantity and variety. It was the period of the great industrial revolution in Northern Italy, so the new bourgeoisie began to demonstrate its prestige by building palaces and villas

In Torino, Liberty (Art Nouveau) architecture is found in all areas and neighborhoods of the city, although some areas were more impacted than others, such as the so-called Cit Turin, the predominant settlement area of ​​the new entrepreneurial bourgeoisie. Here you can observe marvelous bay windows, facades richly decorated with floral motifs or enriched with stone-concrete compositions, lanterns, metal domes, railings, and staircases that sinuously climb inside residential buildings. Torino's Art Nouveau , however, may look less majestic, at first sight, than other places often associated with this style, such as Barcelona. Torino is ultimately a "serious" city, and the local motto, , is "esageruma nen", meaning "let's not bite off more than we can chew". Therefore, Art Nouveau in Torino must be sought out and observed critically. There is no shortage of extraordinary masterpieces, such as the Palazzina La Fleur and Villa Scott by Pietro Fenoglio, or the famous Palazzo della Vittoria by Gottardo Gussoni, but you really need to be led by the expertise of a local Guide to understand Turin's Art Nouveau and make it your own.

For all these reasons, I recommend you my "Torino Liberty" tour through the area referred to as "collina Torinese" by the locals, along the right bank of the Po river. We will stroll among villas and buildings designed between the late 19th and early 20th centuries and will end on the most beautiful panoramic terrace of the city.