The Mole Antonelliana is a major landmark

Landmark

This is a list of landmarks around the world.Landmarks may be split into two categories - natural phenomena and man-made features, like buildings, bridges, statues, public squares and so forth...

 of the Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 city of Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

. It is named for the architect who built it, Alessandro Antonelli

Alessandro Antonelli

Alessandro Antonelli was an Italian architect of the 19th century. His most famous works are the Mole Antonelliana in Turin and both the Novara Cathedral and the Basilica of St...

. In Italian "Mole" (literally, "size") indicates a building of monumental proportions. Construction began in 1863, soon after Italian unification

Italian unification

Italian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century...

 and was completed 26 years later, after the architect's death. Today it houses the National Museum of Cinema

National Museum of Cinema

The National Museum of Cinema located in Turin, is an Italian motion picture museum, fitted out inside the Mole Antonelliana tower. It is operated by the Maria Adriana Prolo Foundation, and the core of its collection is the result of the work of the historian and collector Maria Adriana Prolo...

, and it is believed to be the tallest museum in the world.

The building was conceived and constructed as a synagogue

Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

. The Jewish

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

 community of Turin had enjoyed full civil rights since 1848, and at the time the construction of the synagogue began, Turin was the capital of the new Italian state, a position it held only from 1860 to 1864. The community, with a budget of 250,000 lire and the intention of having a building worthy of a capital city, hired Antonio Antonelli. Antonelli was notable for having recently added an "idiosyncratic" 121 metre-high dome and spire to the seventeenth-century Church of San Gaudenzio at Novara

Novara

Novara is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With c. 105,000 inhabitants, it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It is an important crossroads for commercial traffic along the routes from Milan to Turin...

. He promised to build a synagogue for 280,000 lire. 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 167 meters, over 46 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.

With the removal of the Italian capital to Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 in 1864, the community shrank, but costs and Antonelli's ambition continued to rise. In 1876 the Jewish community, which had spent 692,000 lire for a building that was still far from finished, announced that it was withdrawing from the project. The people of Turin, who had watched the synagogue rise skyward, demanded that the city take over the project, which it did. An exchange was arranged between the Jewish community and the city of Turin for a piece of land on which a handsome Moorish Revival

Moorish Revival

Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of the Romanticist fascination with all things oriental...

 synagogue was quickly built. The Mole was dedicated to Victor Emmanuel II. Antonelli again began construction, which took the height to 146, 153, and finally 167 meters (548 feet). From 1908 to 1938, the city used it to house its Museum of the Risorgimento

Museum of the Risorgimento (Turin)

The Museum of the Risorgimento is one of the museums in Italy dedicated to the Risorgimento. It is housed in the Palazzo Carignano in Turin.-History:...

, which was moved to the Palazzo Carignano

Palazzo Carignano

The Palazzo Carignano is a historical building in the centre of Turin, Italy, which currently houses the Museum of the Risorgimento. It was once a private residence of the Princes of Carignano, after whom it is named. It is famous for its unique rounded façade...

 in 1938.

On 23 May 1953 a violent cloudburst, accompanied by a tornado, destroyed the uppermost 47 metres of the pinnacle, which was rebuilt in 1961 as a metal structure faced with stone.

Since 2000, the building has housed the Museo Nazionale del Cinema (National Museum of Cinema). The Mole appears on the reverse of the two cent

2 cent euro coins

2 cent euro coins have a value of one-fiftieth of a euro and are composed of copper-covered steel. All coins have a common reverse and country-specific obverse...

 Italian euro coins and was the inspiration for the official emblem

Emblem

An emblem is a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept — e.g., a moral truth, or an allegory — or that represents a person, such as a king or saint.-Distinction: emblem and symbol:...

 of the 2006 Winter Olympics

2006 Winter Olympics

The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XX Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Turin, Italy from February 10, 2006, through February 26, 2006. This marked the second time Italy hosted the Olympic Winter Games, the first being the VII Olympic Winter...

, as well as those of the of the 2005 World Bocce

Bocce

Bocce is a ball sport belonging to the boules sport family, closely related to bowls and pétanque with a common ancestry from ancient games played in the Roman Empire...

 Championships and the 2006 World Fencing Championships

2006 World Fencing Championships

The 2006 World Fencing Championships were held at the Oval Lingotto in Turin, Italy. The event took place from September 29 to October 7, 2006.-Medal table:-Men's events:-Women's events:-References:*...

.

On one side of the four-faced dome, the first Fibonacci number

Fibonacci number

In mathematics, the Fibonacci numbers are the numbers in the following integer sequence:0,\;1,\;1,\;2,\;3,\;5,\;8,\;13,\;21,\;34,\;55,\;89,\;144,\; \ldots\; ....

s are written with red neon lights: they are part of the artistic work Il volo dei Numeri ("Flight of the numbers") by Mario Merz

Mario Merz

Mario Merz was an Italian artist, and husband of Marisa Merz.-Life:Born in Milan, Merz started drawing during World War II, when he was imprisoned for his activities with the Giustizia e Libertà antifascist group. He experimented with a continuous graphic stroke–not removing his pencil point from...

.

External links

• Website of the National Museum of Film (in english)
• The History of the Mole on the Piedmont Regional Site
• Logos of Turin 2006 Winter Olympics and Turin candidacy