Turin National Museum of Cinema and Mole Antonelliana Guided Tour
About this activity
Smartphone tickets accepted
- Your booking is confirmed immediately
- This activity is available in your language
- This option includes FREE cancellation—book now, risk-free!
Experience Highlights
A guided tour of the Mole Antonelliana will allow you to discover one of the architectural symbols of Turin. Although it is located in the centre, at Via Montebello, 20, this great building is one of the city's most unknown gems. When it was built, it was no less than the tallest building in Europe at 167.5 metres high and remained the tallest building in Turin until 2017.
Originally, the Mole Antonelliana was designed to be a Synagogue, but later the city council bought the building to make it a monument to National Unity. Today, it is home to the Museo Nazionale del Cinema (National Cinema Museum ).
With this guided tour in Italian (or its private option with several languages available if you prefer that option and there are two or more of you) you'll be able to see everything the cinema museum has to offer, from posters to costumes to all kinds of material used in the industry. To make it more comfortable, you will be provided with headphones to listen better to the expert guide.
Weather permitting, the tour includes a panoramic lift ride up to the dome. From there, you will have breathtaking views of both the city and the Alps.
- Enter the city' s most representative building.
- Discover its history thanks to the explanations of an expert guide.
- Discover the history of the cinema in the dedicated museum.
What’s included
- Entrance to the Mole Antonelliana and the National Museum of Cinema
- Expert guide
- Headphones (for groups of more than 10 participants)
Select participants and date
Step by Step
The Mole Antonelliana is the symbol of Turin and is recognisable by its large neo-Gothic dome. It houses the National Museum of Cinema, the only one of its kind in Italy. An experienced guide will accompany you for about 2 hours, explaining the characteristics of this building and anecdotes related to the films. With the group option (maximum 15 people), the visit will be in Italian. If you prefer a private tour (which can only be booked for two or more people), you can choose between several languages.
The visit is complemented by access to the dome, which offers a splendid view of the city and the Alps. At 167.5 metres high, when it was inaugurated it was the tallest masonry building in Europe. It is reached by a fast lift that takes less than a minute to reach the viewing platform.
Originally, the Mole Antonelliana was intended to be a synagogue. However, the work of architect Alessandro Antonelli was not appreciated by the Jewish community, who sold it to the municipality. Others were fascinated by this imposing masonry structure, such as Nietzsche, who declared that the Mole was "perhaps the most ingenious work of architecture ever created".
The Cinema Museum owes its birth to the film historian Maria Adriana Prolo, who put together a large collection from the 1940s onwards. Among the most interesting pieces, it is impossible not to mention the period posters, the ancestors of the big screen (shadow puppets, optical boxes, etc.) and the stage costumes.