Torino Porta Nuova railway station is the main

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

northern Italy Northern Italy (, , ) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. The Italian National Institute of Statistics defines the region as encompassing the four Northwest Italy, northwestern Regions of Italy, regions of Piedmo ...

. It is the third busiest station in Italy after Rome Termini and Milan Central, with about 192,000 journeys per day and 70 million travellers a year and a total of about 350 trains per day. Porta Nuova is a

terminal station A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing such ...

, with trains arriving perpendicularly to the facade. The station is located in Corso

Vittorio Emanuele II Victor Emmanuel II (; full name: ''Vittorio Emanuele Maria Alberto Eugenio Ferdinando Tommaso di House of Savoy, Savoia''; 14 March 1820 – 9 January 1878) was King of Sardinia (also informally known as Piedmont–Sardinia) from 23 March 1849 u ...

, right in front of Piazza Carlo Felice (in the South side of the

city centre A city centre, also known as an urban core, is the Commerce, commercial, Culture, cultural and often the historical, Politics, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely e ...

). Trains between Turin and

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

start or finish at the station, including services using the Turin–Milan high-speed line. A

metro station A metro station or subway station is a train station for a rapid transit system, which as a whole is usually called a "metro" or "subway". A station provides a means for passengers to purchase tickets, board trains, and evacuate the syste ...

, which is part of

Turin Metro The Turin Metro () is the modern driverless VAL rapid transit system serving Turin. It is operated by Gruppo Torinese Trasporti (GTT), a public company controlled by the municipality of Turin. The system comprises one line with 23 stations con ...

(''Metropolitana di Torino'') ''line 1'', opened in 2007.

History

Construction of the station began in 1861 under the direction of Alessandro Mazzucchetti. The original structure included a clear distinction between the departure area (near Via Nizza) and the arrival area (near Via

Paolo Sacchi Paolo is a masculine given name, the Italian form of the name Paul. It may refer to: People Art * Paolo Abbate (1884–1973), Italian-American sculptor * Paolo Alboni (1671–1734), Italian painter * Paolo Antonio Barbieri (1603–1649), Ital ...

). The departure area consisted of a large saloon, decorated with columns, stucco work and frescoes depicting the crests of 135 Italian cities showing their distance in kilometers from Turin. This building housed the ticket office, three waiting rooms (one for each of the three classes of railway travel), the Royal Hall and a cafe restaurant. The station was first opened to the public in December 1864, though construction would not be fully completed until 1868. There was no official opening ceremony at the time, partly because the capital of Italy had just been moved from Turin to

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. An official opening ceremony inaugurating the station was performed on 4 February 2009. The name ''Porta Nuova'' ("New Gate" in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

) refers to an old

city gate A city gate is a gate which is, or was, set within a city wall. It is a type of fortified gateway. Uses City gates were traditionally built to provide a point of controlled access to and departure from a walled city for people, vehicles, goods ...

once standing nearby, right along the South side of the old

city walls A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as curtain walls with to ...

, at the bottom of present-day Via

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

(once called Via Nuova): after the walls were torn down at the beginning of the 19th century, the gates themselves were demolished – with the exception was

Porta Palatina The Palatine Gate (; Piedmontese: ''Pòrta Palatin-a'') is a Roman Age city gate located in Turin, Italy. The gate provided access through the city walls of ''Julia Augusta Taurinorum'' (modern Turin) from the North side and, as a result, it con ...

– but their old names kept being used as local place names (other examples are

Porta Susa Torino Porta Susa is a railway station in Turin, northern Italy; it is the second busiest mainline station in the city, after Torino Porta Nuova railway station, Torino Porta Nuova. It is located in ''Corso England, Inghilterra''. History The ...

and

Porta Palazzo Porta can refer to: People * Porta (rapper) (born 1988), stagename of Christian Jiménez Bundo, a Spanish rap singer * Porta (surname), surname Places * La Porta, a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France on the island of Corsica * Por ...

Enzo Ferrari Enzo Anselmo Giuseppe Maria Ferrari (; ; 18 February 1898 – 14 August 1988) was an Italian racing driver and entrepreneur, the founder of Scuderia Ferrari in Grand Prix motor racing, and subsequently of the Ferrari automobile marque. Under h ...

attended "Bar del Nord" in Porta Nuova, where he met those connected with automobiles and racing when he was working in Turin as a young man, circa 1918–1919. A station of the

(''Metropolitana di Torino'') named '' Porta Nuova'' opened under the main station on 5 October 2007.

Station upgrades

The station was included in a nationwide program of upgrades to the main Italian stations, by

Grandi Stazioni () is a member company of Italy's Ferrovie dello Stato () group. It was created to rehabilitate and manage, even commercially, the 13 biggest Italian railway stations. Stations under management The Roma Termini railway station was the pilot o ...

, a subsidiary of

Ferrovie dello Stato Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. (; ; previously only Ferrovie dello Stato, hence the initialism FS) is Italy's national state-owned enterprise, state-owned railway holding company that manages transport, infrastructure, real estate service ...

. In the first stage of renovations completed on February 4, 2009, of the area of the station buildings was redeveloped. The areas allocated to services for passengers, dining, shopping, culture and leisure was increased considerably. In January 2013, restoration work continued on the facade and interior, preserving historical elements from the 19th century, including its distinctive red colour. After nearly 4 years of work, scaffolding came down and the building was unveiled to the public, featuring a new, coloured

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...

lighting scheme. In December 2016,

Unieuro Unieuro S.p.A. is the largest Italian retailer of consumer electronics and Household appliance, household appliances by number of Outlet store, outlets, with a network of 460 stores throughout Italy.acq5.com, "Unieuro Acquires Andreoli" (http:// ...

, a large-scale

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

and domestic appliances

retailer Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesal ...

, opened a location within the station. Work continues in 2017 on upgrades to the track area, including the addition of more fully accessible platforms.

Structure

The station is built on several levels. An underground level is occupied by local divisions of FS and businesses. The platforms are on the ground floor, along with passenger lounges and associated services for passengers and commercial activities. On the upper floors are offices and a post office.

The Gonin Room

In a corridor off the central gallery of the station, a former first-class waiting room where members of the Royal Savoy family awaited their trains, is still visible today. Modest in size, at , the room is well preserved, featuring original furniture consisting of armchairs, tables, and mirrors. It is not open to the general public, except on special occasions. The room's name is derived from

Francesco Gonin Francesco Gonin (December 16, 1808 in Turin – September 14, 1889 in Giaveno, near Susa, Piedmont) was an Italian painter, engraver and scenographer. Biography Early life Francesco's father Giovanni was of French descent, and his mother Sa ...

, the artist who painted its

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

es. The paintings, still well maintained, represent the elements of nature -

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

Water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

, and

Fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a fuel in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. Flames, the most visible portion of the fire, are produced in the combustion re ...

. The four corners of the room feature imagery depicting the four continents of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and

the Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.'' Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sin ...

. More impressive is the use of ''

trompe-l'œil ; ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional surface. , which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving p ...

'' effect by Gonin, who wanted to give visitors the impression of a ceiling open to the sky.

Train services

The station is served by the following services: *High speed services (''Frecciarossa'') ''Turin – Milan – Bologna – Florence – Rome'' *High speed services (''Frecciarossa'') ''Turin – Milan – Reggio Emilia – Bologna – Florence – Rome – Naples – Salerno'' *High speed services (''Italo'') ''Turin - Milan - Reggio Emilia - Bologna - Florence - Rome - Naples - Salerno'' *High speed services (''Frecciabianca'') ''Turin - Milan - Brescia - Verona - Vicenza - Padua - Venice - Trieste'' *High speed services (''Frecciabianca'') ''Turin - Parma - Bologna - Ancona - Pescara - Foggia - Bari - Brindisi - Lecce'' *High speed services (''Frecciabianca'') ''Turin - Alessandria - Genova - La Spezia - Pisa - Livorno - Rome'' *Intercity services ''Turin – Asti – Alessandria – Genoa - La Spezia - Pisa - Livorno - Rome - Naples - Salerno'' *Intercity services ''Turin – Asti – Alessandria – Bologna – Rimini – Ancona – Pescara – Foggia – Bari – Brindisi – Lecce'' *Night train (''Intercity Notte'') ''Turin - Alessandria - Bologna - Ancona - Pescara - Foggia - Bari - Brindisi - Lecce'' *Night train (''Intercity Notte'') ''Turin - Genoa - La Spezia - Pisa - Livorno - Rome - Naples - Salerno'' *Night train (''Intercity Notte'') ''Turin - Milan - Parma - Rome - Naples - Salerno'' *Night train (''Intercity Notte'') ''Turin - Milan - Parma - Reggio Emilia - Florence - Rome - Salerno - Lamezia Terme - Reggio di Calabria'' *Express services (''Regionale Veloce'') ''Turin – Chivasso – Santhià – Vercelli – Novara – Milan'' *Express services (''Regionale Veloce'') ''Turin - Chivasso – Ivrea – Aosta'' *Regional services (''Treno regionale'') ''Turin – Asti – Alessandria – Ronco – Genoa'' *Turin Metropolitan services (''SFM3'') ''Bardonecchia - Bussoleno - Turin'' *Turin Metropolitan services (''SFM3'') ''Susa - Bussoleno - Turin''

References

External links

Official page at Grandistazioni website
* {{Authority control Porta Nuova Railway stations in Italy opened in 1861