The Lingotto factory built in Turin between 1916 and 1923 was the largest automobile factory in the world — the production line ran from raw materials at the bottom to completed automobiles at the top, where they were tested on a banked oval track on the roof at up to 90 km/h. Le Corbusier visited in 1925 and called it “one of the most impressive sights in industry.” Fiat closed it in 1982. Renzo Piano won the conversion competition in 1984 and installed — among other things — the Pinacoteca Agnelli: Gianni Agnelli's personal collection of Matisse, Tiepolo, Canaletto, Renoir, Manet, Picasso, and a Bronzino, in a glass structure cantilevered above the rooftop track. The track is still there. Turin guide →
Turin → Plan my Turin trip →Location: Via Nizza 250, Turin (Lingotto district, Municipio 8) | Built: 1916–1923; architect Giacomo Mattè-Trucco | Original function: Fiat automobile factory (the largest in the world at opening) | Current function: Congress centre, hotel (NH Lingotto), shopping mall (8 Gallery), concert hall (Auditorium Giovanni Agnelli), Pinacoteca Agnelli | Famous for: Rooftop test track; Le Corbusier's 1925 visit; Italian Job filming
The Fiat Lingotto factory was built in Turin between 1916 and 1923 to a design by engineer Giacomo Mattè-Trucco. When it opened it was the largest automobile factory in the world — 500 metres long, five storeys high, with a production line that began with raw materials at the ground floor and ended with completed automobiles at the top floor, where they were driven out onto a banked oval test track on the roof. The rooftop track (still intact today) is the specific image that defines the Lingotto: the improbable sight of automobiles racing around a banking circuit above a 25-metre building in the centre of a city. Cars were tested at speeds up to 90 km/h on the rooftop oval before being lowered by lift and delivered to customers.
Le Corbusier visited the Lingotto in 1925 and wrote about it in Vers une Architecture: he called it "one of the most impressive sights in industry" — the rational logic of the production line architecture, culminating in the rooftop track, perfectly embodying his ideas about the machine aesthetic in architecture. The Lingotto became a reference building for the entire modernist architectural tradition.
Fiat closed the Lingotto factory in 1982. The building was left empty for several years; a competition for its conversion was won by Renzo Piano in 1984. Piano's conversion (completed in stages through the 1990s) retained the structural shell entirely and inserted new functions within it: a congress centre, a hotel, a shopping centre, a concert hall (the Auditorium Giovanni Agnelli, designed within the former machine hall with adjustable acoustic panels), and — most elegantly — a glass "bubble" on the roof, the Bolla, which serves as the conference centre penthouse and gives a 360-degree view of Turin and the Alps from above the rooftop track.
The Pinacoteca Agnelli is a small but exceptional art museum installed in a glass building by Renzo Piano cantilevered above the rooftop test track, accessible by dedicated lift from the Lingotto's interior. The collection is the personal art collection of Gianni Agnelli (1921–2003) — the legendary Fiat chairman, Italy's most significant industrial figure of the postwar period, the man who more than anyone defined the Italian postwar economy and culture — donated to public exhibition on his death. The collection is small (23 permanent works) but extraordinary: Matisse, Tiepolo, Bellotto, Canaletto, Renoir, Manet, Picasso, and a specific Brueghel. The hanging Bronzino portrait of Eleanor of Toledo (the same subject as Bronzino's more famous versions in the Uffizi) is one of the Pinacoteca's most significant works. Entry €8; open Tuesday–Sunday 10am–7pm.
The rooftop oval test track of the Lingotto is still intact — the banked curves, the straight sections, the barrier rails — and is accessible to visitors. The track is used for events (outdoor concerts, exhibitions, running events) and is open to walk during the Pinacoteca visit and at other times depending on programming. The view from the banking at the end of the straight encompasses: the Turin skyline to the north (the Mole Antonelliana, the Superga hill with its Baroque basilica), the Alps with Monte Rosa and the chain clearly visible on clear days, and the dense grid of the Lingotto district below. The industrial-scale banking of the corners — designed for cars at speed — produces a specific vertiginous lean when walked on foot.
The original The Italian Job (1969, directed by Peter Collinson, with Michael Caine) filmed the climactic car chase through Turin and includes a sequence on the Lingotto rooftop track. The Mini Coopers race around the banked oval in one of the most recognisable sequences in British cinema. The film's Turin location shooting (including the rooftop track, the sewers beneath the Piazza Castello, and the Fiat dealer showroom) was facilitated by Fiat's corporate participation — the company provided vehicles and access in exchange for product exposure. The 2003 remake (also titled The Italian Job, with Mark Wahlberg) did not film at the Lingotto.
By metro: Turin Metro line 1, Lingotto stop — directly adjacent to the complex. By tram: Line 17 from the city centre (Piazza Vittorio). The Pinacoteca: Renzo Piano's cantilevered gallery above the rooftop track; entry €8; open Tuesday–Sunday 10am–7pm. The 8 Gallery shopping mall: Ground floor of the Lingotto, free access. The Auditorium Giovanni Agnelli: Concert programme from October–June; check lingottomusica.it for events. The NH Lingotto hotel: The hotel occupies one wing of the factory building; rooftop track access included for hotel guests. Combine with: The Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile (MAUTO, 800 metres from the Lingotto — the best car museum in Italy, covering Italian automotive history from 1896 with 200+ vehicles), the Juventus Stadium (Stadium Museum, 5 km north), and the Turin city centre (Mole Antonelliana, Piazza Castello, Palazzo Reale). Turin guide →
The Fiat Lingotto is a former Fiat automobile factory in Turin (1916–1923, designed by Giacomo Mattè-Trucco) — at its opening the largest car factory in the world, with a production line that ended on the rooftop where completed cars were tested on a banked oval circuit above the building. Fiat closed it in 1982; Renzo Piano converted it in the 1990s into a congress centre, hotel, shopping mall, concert hall (Auditorium Giovanni Agnelli), and the Pinacoteca Agnelli (Gianni Agnelli's personal art collection). The rooftop track is still intact and accessible.
The Pinacoteca Agnelli is a small museum installed in a Renzo Piano glass structure cantilevered above the Lingotto's rooftop test track. It holds 23 permanent works from Gianni Agnelli's personal collection, donated to public exhibition on his death in 2003: Matisse, Tiepolo, Bellotto, Canaletto, Renoir, Manet, Picasso, a Brueghel, and a Bronzino portrait of Eleanor of Toledo. Entry €8; open Tuesday–Sunday 10am–7pm. Despite the quality of the collection, it receives a fraction of the visitor numbers of the Turin city centre museums.
Yes. The original The Italian Job (1969, directed by Peter Collinson, starring Michael Caine) filmed the climactic Mini Cooper car chase sequence on the Lingotto's rooftop test track. The banking oval scenes — the Minis racing on the angled curves above the Turin roofscape — are among the most recognisable sequences in British film history. Fiat facilitated the Turin location shooting (Lingotto, sewers, dealer showroom) in exchange for product placement. The 2003 American remake of The Italian Job did not film at the Lingotto.
Yes. The Lingotto rooftop test track is still intact and is accessible to visitors during Pinacoteca Agnelli opening hours and at other times when events are not scheduled on the roof. The track is used for outdoor concerts, exhibitions, and occasional running events. The specific experience of walking the banked corners of a car test track on a rooftop, with the Turin skyline and the Alps visible in all directions, is unlike anything else in Italy.
From Turin city centre to the Lingotto: Metro line 1 (red line) from Porta Nuova station or Porta Susa station to the Lingotto stop — approximately 10–15 minutes. The Lingotto metro stop is directly adjacent to the complex. By tram: line 17 from the city centre. By car: the Lingotto is on Via Nizza, approximately 5 km from Piazza Castello, with parking at the 8 Gallery (paid). The MAUTO car museum is 800 metres from the Lingotto on the same street.
Le Corbusier visited the Fiat Lingotto factory in 1925 and described it in Vers une Architecture as "one of the most impressive sights in industry." He was responding to the logic of the building: the rational organisation of the production line from ground floor (raw materials) to rooftop (completed automobiles on the test track) expressed his ideas about the machine aesthetic in architecture more completely than almost any building then existing. The Lingotto became a reference building for modernist architecture and is discussed in architectural history alongside the Bauhaus and the early rationalist factories of Albert Kahn in Detroit.
Lingotto + MAUTO + Mole Antonelliana + Palazzo Reale — Turin in 2 full days, Italy's most underrated city.
Plan my Turin trip →The Auditorium Giovanni Agnelli is a concert hall inserted by Renzo Piano into the former machine hall of the Lingotto factory, with adjustable acoustic panels that allow configuration for different performance types (orchestral, chamber, jazz, amplified). The hall's concert season runs October–June; it is the principal venue for the Lingotto Musica concert series, which has hosted major international orchestras and soloists. Programme and tickets: lingottomusica.it. The acoustic design is one of Piano's most technically refined solutions to the problem of inserting a concert hall into an existing industrial structure.
The Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile (MAUTO) is 800 metres from the Lingotto on Via Nizza, Turin's principal car museum with over 200 historic vehicles covering Italian and international automotive history from 1896 to the present. The collection spans the earliest Benz and Panhard vehicles, through the Fiat and Lancia 1920s–1930s golden period, the post-war sports car era (Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Maserati), Formula 1 race cars, and contemporary design. The 2011 renovation by Cino Zucchi makes it one of the best-presented car collections in Europe. Entry €15; open daily 10am–7pm (Fri to 9pm). The combination of MAUTO and the Lingotto — 800 metres apart on the same street — constitutes the most complete Italian automotive history experience available.
Beyond the Pinacoteca Agnelli and the Auditorium Giovanni Agnelli, the Lingotto complex contains: the 8 Gallery shopping mall (occupying the ground floor and lower levels of the original factory floor space, with standard Italian and international retail and a food court); the NH Lingotto hotel (occupying a factory wing, with rooms that look onto the internal factory court or outward toward the city, rooftop track access for guests); the OGR Turin (a separate but adjacent venue — the former Officine Grandi Riparazioni railway workshop, now a major contemporary art and technology space, 500 metres from the Lingotto); and the Eataly Turin (the flagship Eataly food market, accessible from the 8 Gallery complex).
Turin is one of the most undervisited major Italian cities by international tourists and genuinely worth more than a single-site visit. Key attractions: the Museo Egizio (the most important Egyptian collection outside Cairo, 8,000+ objects); the Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano (the most comprehensive museum of Italian unification history, in the palazzo where the first Italian parliament met); the Mole Antonelliana and the Museo Nazionale del Cinema (Italy's film museum in the 167-metre neo-Gothic tower); the Palazzo Reale (the Savoy royal palace, 2,500 rooms, the royal armoury and Guarini's Chapel of the Holy Shroud); and the city's exceptional aperitivo culture (the birthplace of vermouth, Campari, and the aperitivo tradition). Turin rewards 2–3 days comfortably.