Spread Museum

The Museo diffuso della resistenza, della deportazione, della guerra, dei diritti e della libertà (Spread Museum of Resistance, Deportation, War, Rights and Freedom), tries out original exhibitive languages and multi-medial communication forms.

“Peace entails being able to look back to the past and learn its lessons.”

Architect Filippo Juvarra designed and oversaw the implementation of the Military Quarters between 1716 and 1728. These were two symmetric buildings used as garrison barracks for the capital city of Vittorio Amedeo II new kingdom, and they shaped the city’s new western gate, Porta Susina.

In 1768, the Quarters were added new stores and became with time the seat of judiciary and municipal offices.

The City of Torino decided by a 1995 resolution to appoint one of the two buildings – the Municipal building at nr. 13, (on the corner of Via del Carmine with Corso Valdocco) – to new seat of the Piedmont Institute for the History of Resistance and Present-Day Society (ISTORETO) and Cinema Archive of Resistance (ANCR). The related restoration of the Juvarra building gave rise to an important opportunity, i.e. locating in the same place both the research and conservation institute and the exhibition premises of the Spread Museum, a project stemmed from the will of devolving a permanent comprehensive educational museum path through the WW2 issues and crimes against humanity in the city’s very memorial spots.

Thus, the former Military Quarters building now houses two research institutes, uniquely rich specialized records Europe-wide, and the Museum which features the following:

• a documentation center and related activity spot about the 20th century history and human rights, tightly bound with the city and district memorial areas;

• a permanent setting leading visitors along a virtual journey through the 1938-48 decade, including a descent into the building’s 12-meter deep underground air-raid shelter;

• transient exhibitions on the 2nd floor; a conference room for cinema performances, seminars, congresses and shows;

• information material on the Museum’s activities, exhibition catalogs, essays and fiction in the ground floor reception hall.