Glorious

You know, before I settled into my political science major at college, I had a good whack at art history. It didn't work out because, in their all-encompassing wisdom, the College of Design at Iowa State demanded that you be able to draw if you wanted to be in their stinking college. No, really, I'm not bitter about it. Sniff. Anyway...I did manage to cram in a bunch of art and design history classes and as such, on occasion, I'm usually able to pull arcane bits and bobs about famous buildings out of my you-know-where.

But I will admit to being flummoxed when I saw the aerial photos of Turin...

...and had no idea what this building was.

If Bob Costas mentioned it, I missed it. So, I decided to figure it out. I assumed it was a cathedral---a Catholic cathedral, of course, this is Italy, after all---but I was wrong. It never was a cathedral, but was originally built to be a synagogue. It's called La Mole Antonelliana.

According to Wikipedia:

The Mole Antonelliana is a major architectural symbol of the city of Turin, Italy. It is named for the architect who built it, Alessandro Antonelli. Construction began in 1863.

Originally, it was intended to be a Jewish synagogue, as religious freedom had just been granted to non-Catholic groups, but the relationship between Antonelli and the Jewish community was not a happy one. He immediately began to propose a series of modifications which raised the final height to 113 meters--over 47 meters higher than the dome in the original design. Such changes, in addition to greater costs and construction time than were originally anticipated, did not please the Jewish community and construction was halted in 1869 with a provisional roof. In 1873 an exchange with the city of Turin for other land for a synagogue took place, and the Mole was dedicated to Victor Emanuel II. Antonelli again began construction, which took the height to 146, 153, and finally 167 meters.

167 meters=547.9 feet. That's almost two football fields. Built without the help of reinforced concrete. Don't try this at home, kids.

It's now the home of the Italian national cinema museum.

I love the lines on it. It's neat and tidy; clean and cool. It looks so solid, like it would scoff one of its particularly well-built shoulders at anyone who would dare to suggest it could possibly fall down. The spire is particularly interesting, too, if you take a good look. At the base of the spire is (what looks to be) a two-storey, classical-style temple that I really enjoy looking at and wondering about. Could you really chat with the gods and goddesses if you managed to swing a ladder all the way up there? You'd be close enough, after all; it should be possible if you followed the theory behind the choice of the Acropolis for the Parthenon.

Enjoy looking at it. I know I have.

Posted by Kathy at February 15, 2006 12:57 AM | TrackBack