Piemonte Italia

In 1942, the City of Turin made several rooms of the Mole Antonelliana available to Maria Adriana Prolo, collector and historian, where she could keep and exhibit material gathered for her Museum of Cinema project. In the years after the war, the Museum of Cinema – effectively, one of the first in the world – was created in the rooms of Palazzo Chiablese - one of the arms of the Turin Royal Palace. It returned to the Mole Antonelliana in 2000 with a particularly spectacular installation created by Francois Confino which perfectly follows the vertical lay-out of the Mole Antonelliana.
The heart of the museum is the spectacular Aula del Tempio (the Temple Hall). A 63 meter high bell arch cut in half by the elevator that takes visitors all the up - almost 160 meters - to the pinnacle. Around the Hall, where visitors can watch two short films screened as they comfortably lie back on chaises longues, ten “chapels” are dedicated to cult of cinema, turning Cabiria and Turin silent film, Surrealism, popular genres, and the Avant-garde, among others into an event. At regular intervals, the screening is interrupted and the cupola comes alive with an extraordinary multimedia recreation of the heavens.
Just like a film, a Helicoidal Ramp, presently the area of temporary shows, is wrapped around the Hall. Besides this scenic and spectacular apparatus, the museum has one of the most important pre-cinema collections that exist in the world, which tells the story, through optic systems, new world, and magic lanterns, of the spectacular practices which took place during the period between the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century.

Summary of information, address and hours

Disabled access: Yes

Audioguide: No

Group visits: Yes

Educational visits: Yes

Museum subscription: Free entrance

Opening times: Please call the phone number for further information +39.011.8138560 - 561