One of the highlights of Turin is the Museo Egizio, the largest and finest collection of Egyptian antiquities outside Egypt itself. The collection is astounding in its range and quality, but what really sets it apart from other similar collections is the clarity of its presentation and, in particular, the lucidity of its interpretative material. One leaves the museum, not only awed by the beauty and refinement of the objects displayed, but also with a much deeper understanding of the culture and history of those that created these exquisite objects.
However, the real question on every visitor’s lips is …… why? Why is the world’s second largest collection of Egyptian antiquities located in a relatively small Italian provincial city like Turin. The answer is an intriguing one and, perhaps, not surprisingly starts with aristocratic ambitions and dreams of grandeur.
In 1563, the House of Savoy decided to move its capital from Chambery to Turin. The Savoyards began an ambitious programme of town planning and construction to put its new city on a par with the other “royal” capitals of Europe, but there was still a worrying lack of lineage compared to the more established Crown Heads of Europe. During excavations for the new city, a marble fragment from the Roman period, invoking the goddess Isis, was discovered. The find was proposed as proof that there was a link between the civilization of ancient Egypt and the new capital of the House of Savoy, which would indeed have been an astonishingly ancient and prestigious lineage, if true.
Undaunted, Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy decided to endow Turin with a “Great Gallery” of antiquities. Between 1626 and 1630 he purchased a significant number of artefacts from the Dukes of Mantua to kick start the collection. By the C18 interest in Egypt’s ancient civilization was intense among Europe’s intellectuals and the Dukes of Savoy sent expeditions to Egypt to purchase ancient artefacts for their collections. Most notably, three large stone statues were brought back to Turin for display.
In 1824, the Museo Egizio was formally founded in Turin, the first museum in the world dedicated to the ancient Egyptian civilization. Throughout the C19, the museum’s collection continued to grow through acquisition and as a result of archaeological expeditions to Egypt. Between 1903 and 1920, a succession of Italian expeditions to the ancient sites, all organized by the Turin Museum, discovered findings of extraordinary beauty and value of which hundreds were brought back for the museum’s collection. Acquisitions faltered during the Fascist period as the Museum Director, resisting Fascist doctrine, was side-lined by the regime. His last and, perhaps most important, act was to remove the museum’s contents to safe storage before the heavy Allied bombing of Turin could endanger them.
Today, the Museum, refurbished and renovated in 2015, sits proudly in its original C17 building as one of Turin’s most important and most visited sites.
The Museo Egizio is located in the centre of Turin, for further details search museoegizio.it
