Architecture & surroundings

From Turin to Novara via ValSesia in the sign of Alessandro Antonelli

The Antonelliana Network is a cycle of 30 appointments including visits, dedicated podcasts and programmes to learn more about the work of the Mole's famous designer

by Laura Dominici

20 May 2026

6' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

6' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Challenging the limits of heights, in an extreme design vision that would make him an archistar today. The genius of Alessandro Antonelli is a challenge of weight, obsessive calculation and bricks taken beyond the limits of physics. An architect-engineer of prodigious longevity (1798-1888), Antonelli was no mere builder, but a visionary of verticality who transformed the solidity of Piedmontese stone into a structural vertigo. While more industrialised Europe fell in love with steel, he responded with the audacity of masonry, convinced that brick could 'touch the sky' without breaking. Today, that dream of architectural omnipotence that links Turin to the wine hills becomes an organic tourist experience.

L’iniziativa

It has been called 'Rete Antonelliana. Cultura che unisce' (Antonelliana Network. Culture that unites) is the Piedmont Region's project that, in collaboration with Abbonamento Musei Piemonte Valle d'Aosta, brings together twenty sites to tell the story of the legacy of a man who redesigned the profile of a region. The project envisages more than 30 seasonal appointments, including guided tours, dedicated podcasts and loyalty programmes for the most assiduous visitors. And between one architectural work and another, one can indulge in a wine tasting in the ricetto di Ghemme, have lunch at the agriturismo in Boca 'L'antico sapore', sample typical Novara biscuits at the Camporelli biscuit factory or dine at the Osteria Cravero di Caltignaga on Novara's paniscia, while in Turin, it is advisable to dine at the Circolo dei Lettori restaurant, where in the past illustrious guests have included painters, sculptors, musicians and actors on stage in Turin's theatres.

The National Cinema Museum

The journey begins in the Temple Hall, the beating heart of the National Cinema Museum. It is strange to think that the Mole Antonelliana, a 167.5 metre giant and undisputed symbol of Turin, should 'only' be a 47 metre synagogue. Upon entering, one immediately feels the tension between the ancient and the modern. Antonelli began the work at the age of 64, an age at which many think of retirement. While in Paris Gustave Eiffel played with the strength of metal, the 'old' Alessandro remained faithful to the materials of tradition, while hiding in the bowels of the Mole a secret soul of iron rods to tame a dome with a square base, an almost impossible technical challenge that would tend to give way at the corners.

The ascent on foot

Climbing the staircase of over 500 steps to reach the terrace is a sensory experience: the walls slope down following the curve of the dome while the floor remains straight, giving, as the guides say, that 'second glass of wine' effect. Up there, at 85 metres, one dominates the city, but one's gaze first turns back to 1904, when a cloudburst caused the winged genie to fall, later replaced by a five-pointed star, which in turn fell in 1953 in the RAI gardens under the incredulous eyes of a young Piero Angela. Today, in its place stands a twelve-pointed star, the city's perennial beacon.

Villa Caccia

Romagnano Sesia: the elegance of Villa Caccia

Leaving Turin to reach Valsesia, one stops at Villa Caccia, in Romagnano Sesia, where Antonelli's neoclassicism becomes a majestic landscape. The villa, one of the largest 19th-century residences in Piedmont, dominates the town with its colonnades and almost maniacal symmetry. Crossing the threshold, among other things, the visitor has the unique opportunity to explore the Mev, Museo storico etnografico della Bassa Valsesia, housed here. It is an evocative encounter between architectural elegance and the memory of rural life: a monumental 13-metre-long walnut press stands out among the rooms of the museum, a symbol of the toil and ingenuity of the peasantry. The visit allows visitors to immerse themselves in the history of local traditions and the sacred representations of Romagnano, creating a fascinating dialogue between the high Antonellian style and the concreteness of everyday life in the past. The destinies of two greats of Piedmontese culture intertwine here: Alessandro Antonelli, who designed the villa, infusing it with his neoclassical rigour, and Maria Adriana Prolo, the visionary founder of the Cinema Museum in Turin. Born in Romagnano, Prolo was among the founders of this same ethnographic museum, creating an ideal bridge between the Mole and Villa Caccia: two masterpieces of architecture that she, at different times, helped transform into temples of memory and culture.

Villa Antonelli

Maggiora and Ghemme, the intimacy of genius in their native lands

From Romagnano Sesia, the route continues towards Maggiora and Ghemme, descending deep into the human and artistic roots of Alessandro Antonelli. It is here, in Ghemme, that the architect was born in 1798, and it is among these hills that his pencil work became most devoted and intimate. The Scurolo della Beata Panacea in Ghemme is not a simple chapel: it is a masterpiece of balance that houses the body of the Valsesian martyr. In this space, Antonelli experiments with a solemn yet recollected verticality, as if to demonstrate that architectural greatness is not only measured in metres, but in the perfect harmony of proportions. A few kilometres away, in Maggiora, is the Scurolo di Sant'Agapito, another neoclassical treasure chest that testifies to Antonelli's indissoluble bond with his land. In these "scuroli", or raised rooms intended to protect the relics of saints, the architect declines his technical rigour in an almost theatrical dimension. These precious sites, recently returned to public use, represent his "laboratories of wonder": here the maniacal attention to stone detail and the scenographic management of light anticipate, on a reduced scale, the great structural challenges that would later make the domes of Novara and Turin immortal. It is an Antonelli closer to his community, who puts his ingenuity at the service of faith and local identity. Still in Maggiora, the journey of discovery of the man behind the architect is completed with a visit to Casa Antonelli, the family's historic home, which has long since passed into its ownership. Crossing the threshold of this villa is not just a tourist act, but a privileged entry into the creative workshop of genius. Here, amidst rooms that preserve intact the atmosphere of the 19th century, the internal staircase leading to the upper floors, characterised by a wave and steps designed to facilitate the ascent to the top floors, deserves a close look.

Santuario del Crocifisso di Boca

The Sanctuary in the Woods at Boca

The journey becomes mystical as we arrive at the Sanctuary of the Crucifix of Boca. Here geology meets faith: we are in the lands of the 'Supervolcano' of Valsesia, characterised by magmatic rocks and ancient waters. To make room for this giant, the course of the Sizzone stream was even diverted. Boca represents the work of a lifetime: Antonelli worked on it from 1819 (when he was only 21 years old and astounded everyone by designing the staircase of the "scurolo") until his death in 1888. The Sanctuary was built to protect a miraculous image of the Crucifix, linked to stories of brigands and healings. It is an imposing building, financed by remittances from emigrants in Argentina, emerging from the woods like a cathedral in the desert, today awarded the title of inferior basilica. Next to the sanctuary, it is interesting to see the 'maggiorina' training system, which consists of a method of cultivation whereby three or four vines are planted very close together, in the centre of a square whose corners are the posts to which the shoots are attached. The system was perfected in the 19th century by Antonelli himself in order to make the scaffolding more resistant to wind currents and the weight of the plants. He calculated the correct inclination that allowed the poles to support the shoots without breaking and this method is still used in some old cultivations.

San Gaudenzio - Novara

In Novara, the dome looking at Monte Rosa

Arriving in Novara, the 121-metre-high dome of San Gaudenzio soars like a sentinel from another era, a brick lighthouse directing the gaze from miles away. Today, thanks to spectacular ascending paths leading up to the spire, visitors can experience the thrill of emptiness and take a closer look at the complexity of its masonry cage, a tangle of arches and pillars that reveals Antonelli's obsession with structural perfection. However, to truly understand the genesis of this giant and the visionary mind of its creator, it is necessary to descend and take refuge in the silence of the Novara State Archives. Housed in the evocative complex of the former monastery of Santa Maddalena, the archive holds a rich collection of Alessandro Antonelli's autograph drawings, which reveal how every single brick was foreseen and weighed, turning paper into the first, fundamental brick of that challenge to the sky that still leaves one breathless today.