This legend is so ancient that the whole city can be viewed in terms of mystery, and according to some interpretations, this conflict between the forces of good and evil has influenced the architecture of Turin over the centuries.

The Piazza Statuto is the so-called black heart of the city. This tradition dates back to Roman times, when it was the site of a necropolis. The Theban Legion was also massacred nearby in AD 287 when, upholding their Christian faith, the soldiers refused to burn incense in front of a statue of the Emperor Maximilian.

It appears that all these aspects helped to give the district next to the Piazza Statuto the name “Valdocco”, which comes from the Latin Vallis occisorum, the “valley of the slain”, which probably refers also to its position: towards the west and the sunset, the realm of the underworld.

The gates of Hell?

The square was designed in 1864, and in 1871 Count Marcello Panissera, president of the Accademia Albertina, designed the Fréjus fountain, which still stands at the centre. Officially, the monument pays tribute to the workers who died while building the tunnel. It consists of a mountain of quartzite, extracted during the construction of the Fréjus tunnel, with human figures climbing up it and an angel at the top. In actual fact, the erection of the fountain only fuelled the legend of Piazza Statuto as the black heart of Turin: there are still those who maintain that it conceals nothing less than the gates of Hell.

This esoteric interpretation of the monument points to the angel on the summit, to the fact that it is black, and to the position of the arm, which appears to be in a pose of refusal, as though wishing to repulse anyone who might try to climb the mountain. This interpretation of the fountain is backed up by the fact that on its head the angel bears a black five-pointed star, a symbol of esoteric knowledge. This would suggest that the mountain does not represent the obstacle to France being removed by the work of men, but rather the mountain of Eden, and that the angel is Lucifer engaged in making it as difficult as possible to climb up to Heaven. It is certainly bizarre that the angel does not look towards France, which had been brought closer by the Fréjus tunnel, but rather towards the Via Garibaldi, which leads to another magic point in Turin: the Piazza Castello, the centre of white magic.

The borderline between good and evil

The borderline between good and evil is down the Via Garibaldi, in the Piazza San Giovanni, where executions were carried out after sentencing by the nearby Court of the Inquisition. This is where the cathedral stands and where, since 1587, the Holy Shroud has been housed, after it was brought to Italy by Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy on 14 September 1578. An indication suggesting that the cathedral is the first outpost of white magic has been found on one of its walls: only those who know where to look will notice that, from a particular angle, what appears to be just another plaque actually bears an arrow surrounded by the signs of the zodiac.

The symbol that appears above the arrow is that of Capricorn, which is considered to be the first positive sign because it starts on 23 December, just after the winter solstice. From that moment on, the days start getting longer, nature is reborn, and the arrow on the cathedral of Turin really does appear to indicate symbolically that what is to its right belongs to the realm of light, while darkness lies to its left.

Just a few yards to the east and one enters the Piazza Castello.

Tradition has it that Maria Cristina of France, the daughter of Henri IV and wife of Vittorio Amedeo I of Savoy, decided to build the Savoy residence in that particular place on the advice of master alchemists. Historians tell us that the Savoy family were always interested in alchemy, and it seems that when Cristina became regent after the death of her husband in 1637, she was made privy to the secret concerning the location of the alchemical caves of Turin, and that she commissioned the castle, which was built between 1646 and 1660, nearby. Some experts place the caves beneath the Palazzo Madama, the residence of the Savoys before Cristina and just a few yards from the royal palace, while others locate them in the park of the palace itself.

In her book Torino città magica of 1978, the writer Giuditta Dembech interviews Gustavo Adolfo Rol, who refers to himself as an alchemist and maintains that Turin really does have alchemical caves, and that he knows exactly where they are. To back up her theory, the author recalls that there is documentary evidence that Nostradamus stayed in Turin in 1556. It also seems that tunnels were discovered during excavations for the reorganisation of the city roads in the lead up to the 2006 Olympics. Although of uncertain interpretation, they start in the Corso San Maurizio and head straight towards the royal gardens.

The most auspicious point in Turin is said to be at the centre of the palace gates, where there was once a pavilion for the ostension of the Holy Shroud. At the sides of the gates (designed by Pelagio Pelagi in 1835) are statues of Castor and Pollux, which could again represent the conflict between darkness and light, the latter symbolised by a five-pointed star on the head of the twin on the right.

Continuing eastwards along the axis of the Via Garibaldi, past the castle and over the Po River, we come to the Gran Madre, a church built between 1818 and 1831 to celebrate the return of Vittorio Emanuele I after Napoleonic rule. One of the reasons why Turin has been considered a magical city ever since ancient times is the legend that it was built by Phaeton, the son of Isis, in 1529 BC (see Filiberto Pingone, Augusta Taurinorum, 1577). There are those who claim that the Gran Madre, or “Great Mother” was built on, and takes its name from, the ruins of a temple to Isis.

A magical place of worship?

Those who consider the place of worship to be magical base their idea on architectural observations. The church is positioned in such a way that at noon on the day of the winter solstice, the sun illuminates the upper façade, and appears exactly at the top of the tympanum above the colonnade.

The pediment of the Gran Madre bears the inscription Ordo Populusque Taurinus ob Adventum Regis, but if we read every other word, the inscription can be translated as the “return of the (Druid) order of the Taurini”: it appears that this place was also sacred to the Celtic population prior to the arrival of the Romans in Turin.

On either side of the steps up to the church there are two statues, of Faith and Religion respectively: according to experts in esotericism, the latter points to the place where, in Turin, the Holy Grail is preserved.

Quite apart from any speculation about the architecture of the city, it is certainly true that demons and sculptures with monstrous features can be found on many buildings, near doors and windows, as though to repel intruders.

It is certainly not easy to come across buildings with mysterious symbols simply by chance: one needs to know where they are and, once there, where to look. Guided tours through the mysteries of Turin are available for those who wish to discover many of the clues that reveal the magical nature of the city. These are organised by Somewhere (www.somewhere.it), with expert guides and even actors impersonating ghosts and historical characters. For all inquisitive people, and for those who really wish to get to know a city that makes no secret of its beauty.