Torino Palazzo Priotti Apartment

Palazzo Priotti, once called Priocca and later Frisetti, stands at Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 52. Camillo Riccio first designed it for the Priotti family, replacing a building put up in the mid-19th century by Barnaba Panizza and later extended by Federico Blanchier. From 1865, the earlier building was known across the city for Caffè Burello, where travelers, aristocrats, and Turin’s growing bourgeoisie gathered. By the late 19th century, it was also a meeting place for early automobile racing pioneers, and the meetings that led to the founding of FIAT took place there. Riccio died suddenly in 1899, so Carlo Ceppi (1829-1921) took over the design and finished the building in 1901. Plans appeared eight years later for a variety theater in the courtyard. Eugenio Ballatore di Rosana designed it, and Alfredo Premoli later revised the plans for a hall with sloping stalls, a gallery, and other spaces including an ice rink and elegant corner bar. Work began in 1911, and Cinema Ambrosio opened in December 1913 under lawyer Giuseppe Barattolo. It was considered one of Europe’s most elegant and modern theaters at the time. Over the following decades it was expanded, renovated, and fitted with new technology. It became a multiplex in 1986, then underwent further work through 1992, when three theaters were operating. More changes in recent years added theaters and moved the entrance from its original location, now occupied by another business. The building escaped wartime bombing and today also contains professional offices and private homes. The building has five main floors and an attic, with a prominent molded cornice at the top. Plaster covers the facades, alongside elaborate artificial-stone details. The smooth ashlar base stands apart from the upper floors, with large segmental arches that reflect the ground floor’s original commercial and public use. Above, string courses, corbels, broken tympanums, curved pediments, and many windows create a strong vertical rhythm. The window frames have molded geometric and plant designs. Balconies appear regularly, though their shapes and sizes vary by floor, and they rest on shell-shaped stone corbels with wrought-iron railings in floral and stylized patterns. There are also two imposing bow windows and a covered colonnaded terrace, decorated with figures including caryatids, telamons, eagles, and rams’ heads. Palazzo Priotti is a refined example of early 20th-century Turin Eclecticism. Its classical decorative language also looks ahead to Liberty and Art Nouveau.