Porta Nuova Station, Gonin Hall

The Gonin Hall is a room located on the ground floor of the Torino Porta Nuova station, reserved as a waiting room for the king, decorated by Francesco Gonin.

In 1861, while the unification of Italy was achieved thanks to the fundamental contribution of Piedmont, the works for the construction of the Porta Nuova station in Turin were inaugurated. The project, by engineer Alessandro Mazzucchetti, combined the functional rigor of the industrial era with the monumentality typical of historic Savoyard buildings.

Turin, now the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, was thus preparing to become the economic and political center of the entire Peninsula.

On the occasion of the Universal Exposition of 1911, important expansion works were carried out to make the station a mirror of the Turin "grandeur" of those years, suitable for receiving visitors from all over the world.

Hidden from the public, kept like a jewel in a secret casket, inside the Turin Porta Nuova station there is a room unknown to most people, which can only be accessed on the occasion of special events. It is called Sala Gonin, and it was the waiting room for first-class passengers, like the royal family. A richly decorated environment, a splendid example of nineteenth-century architecture, which remains locked up for most of the year, so much so that many Turinese do not even know it exists.

Gonin Hall (Sala Gonin) is located on the side of Via Nizza, and can only be visited on the occasion of the FAI Days (the last was on March 20). Designed at the request of the House of Savoy in 1861, it is the brainchild of Alessandro Mazzuchetti - a sort of 'archistar' of the time, already the author of several great stations in northern Italy. Here the royal family could wait for their convoy away from prying eyes, but of course their waiting room could only be sumptuous and welcoming.

Here the services of the Turin painter Francesco Gonin were requested to embellish it in 1964. He created three large paintings depicting mythological scenes, which still today adorn the central and two side walls. These are allegories of Earth, Water and Fire.

The three frescoes are framed by carved friezes with festoons of cherubs and fruit compositions, made by the artist Pasquale Orsi. The same one that he designed the inlaid furniture that decorate the room. The elegant stuccos are instead the work of Pietro Isella. While on the ceiling there is a Murano glass chandelier.

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It was Gonin himself who restored the frescoes 20 years later, with an intervention that reinforced the color. Others followed, even when the room fell into disuse. The space is still splendid today, but there seem to be no intentions to open it to the public, except during exceptional events. Sala Gonin is a secret jewel that must remain so.

Map: Porta Nuova Station, Gonin Hall