The industrial complex between Via Frejus and Via Cesana was built in 1905 to a design by Pietro Fenoglio. It carried in turn the names of SNIA Meccanica, UTITA, the Diatto works and the municipal stores; today it holds the Urban Network Centre of Turin’s civic libraries.
At a glance
The complex stands in Cenisia, in Turin’s third district, with addresses on Via Frejus, Via Revello and Via Cesana. The survey of the city’s industrial fabric carried out by the Comune di Torino with the Politecnico di Torino dates its first plant to 1905 and attributes the construction to Pietro Fenoglio, the architect of so much of Turin’s Liberty. The building is under the protection of both the city plan and the Soprintendenza, and is classed among buildings of documentary value.
Key facts
- First plant: 1905, built to a design by Pietro Fenoglio
- Historic names: SNIA Meccanica, then UTITA, then the Diatto works, then the municipal stores
- Address: Via Frejus 21-23, with Via Revello and Via Cesana 11, Turin, Piedmont, Italy
- District: Cenisia, Circoscrizione 3
- Protection: city plan and Soprintendenza; building of documentary value
- Today: Urban Network Centre of the Biblioteche Civiche Torinesi
- GPS: 45.07090, 7.65073 · Open in Google Maps
History
The plant went up in 1905, on a design by Pietro Fenoglio. In 1927 it was inaugurated again with the arrival of SNIA, and on 18-20 November 1942 it was hit by the bombing of the city. The municipal survey records the succession of names the works carried — SNIA Meccanica, then UTITA, then the Diatto works, then the municipal stores — and classes it among the buildings worth keeping for the record they are.
In 2013 the complex entered a scheme of recovery and conversion named after the car maker, «Le Fabbriche. Società Automobili Diatto», which provided for flats and a supermarket. The building itself now houses the Urban Network Centre of Turin’s civic libraries.
One thing the sources we could read do not settle: they place the Diatto works in the sequence of occupants rather than at the origin, so this page does not say the plant was built for Diatto. The name belongs to the complex’s later life and to the conversion scheme.
What you see
The survey notes a representative front set in relation to the street layout and to the surrounding fabric, at the corner of Via Frejus and Via Cesana — the formal face a factory of that date turned to the city, rather than a blank industrial wall.
This page has no photograph yet
We have not found a freely licensed photograph of these buildings that we may publish. If you hold one — or if you live in Cenisia and can take one — we will add it to this page with the credit you ask for, as the opening image or in a gallery.
Sources & resources
- Città di Torino and Politecnico di Torino, urban survey, record IN-109 «Stabilimento ex Diatto»: the 1905 plant, Pietro Fenoglio, the 1927 arrival of SNIA, the bombing of 18-20 November 1942, the historic names, the protection, the 2013 scheme and the present use
- Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile, Turin — monograph on Diatto among the Italian factories (further reading; not used as the source of the facts above)
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