Mole Antonelliana

Turin's unmistakable skyline landmark rises 167.5 metres above Via Montebello: a brick spire so slender it reads almost like a needle. Begun as a synagogue and finished as a civic monument, the Mole Antonelliana now shelters the National Cinema Museum and a vertiginous panoramic lift, and it remains the single structure by which the city is recognised.

Why it matters

Few buildings anywhere carry a city's identity the way this tower does: more than any palace or church, it is the structure by which Turin is recognised. It appears on the Italian two-euro-cent coin, it inspired the emblem of the 2006 Winter Olympics, and the rivalry between Turin's two football clubs is nicknamed the Derby della Mole after it. For the city that served as the first capital of a united Italy, the Mole is both a statement of 19th-century ambition and a working monument: its interior holds one of the world's most visited cinema museums, and its spire crowns views that reach the Alps on clear days.

What to notice

Start from Piazza Vittorio Veneto or the Po riverbanks and look back: the tower's proportions change dramatically with distance, which is part of Antonelli's geometry. Up close, note the austere neoclassical body, the colonnaded base, and the extraordinary masonry — Antonelli pushed masonry construction to an exceptional height, although later reinforcement and the rebuilding of the spire mean that the present structure should not be described as wholly unreinforced. Inside, the visit belongs to the museum's spiralling exhibition ramp, but keep looking up: the open central shaft climbs to the dome, and the glass-floored panoramic lift shoots through it to the spire's viewing window.

Context and history

The architect Alessandro Antonelli received the commission in 1863 from Turin's Jewish community, who wanted a synagogue for 250,000 lire. Antonelli's revisions — and his instinct to build higher and grander — pushed costs far beyond the budget, and by 1876 the community had withdrawn; the city took over the project, trading land for a new synagogue elsewhere. Work continued past Antonelli's death and the tower was completed in 1889. Its nickname comes from him: a "mole" in the Turinese sense of a monumental building, plus the architect's name. Over the following century the structure served various civic uses, was reinforced after damage, and since 2000 has housed the Museo Nazionale del Cinema, which makes it, by common account, one of the tallest museum buildings anywhere.