Porta Palazzo: The Anthropology of an Italian Market

Chapter 2: The Evolution of a Market

chapter 2 The Evolution of a Market As I wander around the area surrounding the market, I can see remnants of the past. There are ruins of a Roman wall hidden behind market carts, and someone told me earlier this morning about an underground system of passageways that lead to preindustrial “refrigerators.” I have yet to explore these ghiacciaie and I feel that I am still only still skimming the surface of my historical research about this market and its neighborhood. Each day at the Archivio Storico della Città di Torino, the bundles of documents that are delivered up to me reveal the complexity of this market that I comb each morning as I try to understand its inner workings. Yesterday’s milk scandals speak to today’s “bird flu” paranoia. The past brings me closer to what I see now as common themes emerge, and I begin to see the continuity and change of this market over time. —Fieldnotes, February 10, 2002 Torino: A Little History What comes first: the city or the market? It is not always clear, but historically the development of towns and markets is often linked. Turin is no exception. Located in the region of Piedmont in northwest Italy, Turin was 26 chapter 2 founded by the Gauls, and Hannibal sacked this outpost on his famous crossing of the Alps in 218 b.c.e. In 28, Castas Taurinorum was established by Julius Caesar as a military camp at the base of the Alps. Later, the camp developed into a fortified city, which was dedicated to Augustus. The Roman grid structure of the town is still visible in the urban layout of the city center. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Goths, Lombards, and Franks successively invaded. The strategic position of this settlement along important trade routes beyond the Alps made it a point of passage for many. Turin became a feudal lordship of the Savoy family under Emperor Frederick II in 1248. The burgeoning city became the capital of the Savoy Duchy during the sixteenth century. Its role as capital of this prosperous duchy helped the city grow and develop as an important center of trade and culture. The city also made its mark politically: Turin-born Savoy king Vittorio Emanuele II was a key player in the unification of Italy. After the events of 1861, Turin became the first capital of Italy, and Vittorio Emanuele was declared king. This privileged position was short-lived when the capital was transferred to Florence in 1865 and finally to Rome in 1871. Nationbuilding projects that worked hard to evoke the peninsula’s Roman past eclipsed Turin as the birthplace of Italy. Today, most have forgotten Turin’s moment in the sun. Although often considered a secondary city, this northern metropolis is historically, architecturally, and culturally fascinating. The markets tell of some of the richest aspects of Turin’s development. In the seventeenth century , Turin experienced a period of growth, and the city’s markets responded to the new provisioning needs. The markets were grouped by product and spread throughout the city, within the confines of the center. The fruit and vegetable market was held in Piazza San Carlo, the wood and straw markets in Piazza Susina (now Piazza Savoia), the poultry market in Piazza San Giovanni, the fish market in front of San Gregorio (San Rocco) Church, and the wine market in Piazza Carlina (Bianchi 1975: 175–76). In 1755, Benedetto Alfieri reorganized the Piazza delle Erbe market and gradually moved this prosperous market to Porta Palazzo. By the mid-eighteenth century, Turin had not only a central market but also a number of smaller ones. It was not unusual for a city to have markets divided based on the category of merchandise sold. There was limited open public space within the 27 the evolution of a market city’s walled confines and no square large enough to accommodate a general market that included all the goods sold in the various markets. Until the late twentieth century, this division made sense on many levels because household purchases were often carried out by a group of people rather than by one person. Various family members, or domestic servants in wealthier households, took charge of different acquisitions. In addition, separation of markets made these distribution points easier to manage for administrators: tax collection was facilitated, and hygiene and congested city streets were easier to...