Esoteric Turin

Today they are remembered by the monument to San Giuseppe Cafasso, a priest who gave spiritual assistance to prisoners and the condemned. The sculpture by Virgilio Audagna, placed there in 1961, shows him comforting a man bound for execution. It is one of the reasons why the Rondò appears in the tales of dark Turin; before the legends, however, comes the history of the criminal justice of that era.

Esoteric tradition reads the square differently. Its position to the west, towards the sunset, and the memory of ancient burial grounds and places of execution have made it the supposed heart of Turin's black magic. The five-pointed star on the genius's forehead has also been interpreted by some as the sign of Lucifer: a later reading, not the original meaning of the monument.

The executioner was an employee of the justice system, but his trade was despised and set him apart from the population. In the church of Sant'Agostino the executioners even had a reserved pew, and that is where they were traditionally buried. The building is still a private home, not a place to visit. After the Rondò della Forca, this simple street number tells of the everyday life of those who carried out the sentences.

The male figures of Autumn and Winter, arranged symmetrically, have been interpreted in an esoteric and Masonic key as the pillars of an entrance to knowledge. The female figures of Spring and Summer, on the other hand, are said to be linked to different forms of love. Hence also the idea that piazza Solferino marks the passage from the dark western pole to the luminous part of the centre of Turin. These are symbolic readings suggested by the arrangement of the statues, not the documented meaning of the work.

In fact they serve to give air and light to the underground rooms. But their unusual shape has encouraged tales of mysterious presences and occult forces. According to some sources, it was precisely in the basement that meetings of a Masonic lodge were held: a connection that has contributed to the building's esoteric reputation. There is no need to enter the building; the slits can be seen from the street.

The palace was built between 1673 and 1677 to a design by Amedeo di Castellamonte for Giovanni Battista Trucchi di Levaldigi, Minister of Finance to Carlo Emanuele II. The door, made in 1675 by a Parisian workshop, bears carvings of flowers, fruit, animals and cherubs. According to a legend it appeared in a single night, imprisoning a sorcerer's apprentice who had invoked Satan. The door remains an original example of Turin Baroque, visible from the street.

Abbondio Sangiorgio made the sculptures, placed in 1847 on the central pillars of the railings of Palazzo Reale. The railings, designed by Pelagio Palagi at the wish of Carlo Alberto, had a very concrete task: to separate the royal residence from the city. The esoteric reading came later and places between the statues the boundary between the white magic of piazza Castello and the black magic of piazza Statuto. From piazza Castello you can see both the statues and the railings.

The chalice has fed the legend of the Grail hidden in Turin, near the church or in a place symbolically indicated by the statues. Some versions also bring in the Mole Antonelliana. The church, designed by Ferdinando Bonsignore and inaugurated in 1831, celebrates the return of the Savoys after the Napoleonic interlude. The statues are real; of the Grail there is no historical evidence.