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Mole Antonelliana — Turin's landmark and skyline view
A former synagogue turned cinema museum, with a glass lift to the best view of the Alps in the city
The Mole Antonelliana is the building every photo of Turin uses to identify the city, and its history explains why it looks nothing like a typical Italian landmark: it was originally commissioned as a synagogue in the 19th century, before the city took it over and it became something else entirely — at 167.5 metres, one of the tallest museum buildings in the world.
Today it houses the National Cinema Museum, and the building itself is arguably the bigger draw: a glass panoramic lift, 59 seconds top to bottom, climbs through the open central hall to a viewing terrace near the top, giving genuinely unbeatable views across Turin's grid of streets to the Alps beyond on a clear day.
Tickets come in three configurations — museum only, panoramic lift only, or a combined ticket covering both (around €20 combined, museum alone €16, lift alone €9 at recent pricing). The lift itself is a small cabin, 6-7 people per ride, with only one lift in operation, so queues build fast, especially on weekends — booking online in advance is worth doing specifically to skip a queue that can otherwise stretch with no shade at the entrance.
Hours run Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday, and Monday 10am-6pm, with Friday and Saturday extended to 10am-8pm — worth checking against your specific visit day, since the museum doesn't run the same hours every day of the week.
If you'd rather have the Mole and the rest of central Turin's landmarks tied together with a guide rather than navigating solo, a 2-hour city highlights walking tour is a good way to see the Mole in context alongside Piazza San Carlo, the Royal Palace exterior, and the historic centre — a genuinely different, more orientating experience than the lift ticket alone, worth considering on your first day in the city rather than as a replacement for the lift itself.
Why it's special
The panoramic lift is worth treating as the actual headline experience, not an add-on to the museum — climbing through the middle of a 19th-century building originally meant to be a synagogue, in a glass cabin, to a terrace with the Alps on the horizon, is a genuinely different sensation from a standard observation deck. For a visitor whose main reason for being in Turin is the tennis, this is the single most efficient way to get real orientation on the city — one ride gives you the whole layout of Turin at once, useful for making sense of where everything else you're planning to see actually sits relative to each other.
Insider tips
- 1
Book the panoramic lift ticket online in advance — the cabin holds only 6-7 people per ride and there's a single lift, so queues build quickly with no shade at the entrance.
- 2
Hours differ by day: Wed/Thu/Sun/Mon 10am-6pm, Fri/Sat 10am-8pm — check the exact day you're planning to visit rather than assuming a fixed daily schedule.
Practical info
- Hours
- Wed/Thu/Sun/Mon 10am-6pm, Fri/Sat 10am-8pm
- Cost
- Museum only €16, panoramic lift only €9, combined ticket ~€20. Free for under-5s and disabled visitors.
- Access
- Book online in advance to skip queue — official museum ticketing site.
- Book
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- Getting there
- Central Turin, walkable from Piazza San Carlo and Porta Nuova station; served by multiple GTT bus/tram routes.
- Address
- Via Montebello 20, 10124 Torino, Italy
- Website
- www.museocinema.it
What to avoid
Don't skip advance booking assuming you'll walk straight in — the single-lift, small-cabin setup means unbooked queues have genuinely run long on busy days, and there's no shaded waiting area if you get caught in one.
