Cascina Roccafranca, Cultural center in Mirafiori Nord, Turin, Italy.
Cascina Roccafranca is a 17th-century farmhouse in Mirafiori Nord, Turin, with a three-storey villa and lower farm buildings. Its plan changed from an L-shaped closed courtyard to a C-shape after a wing was added in the early 19th century. Since 2007 it has housed a civic centre.
Built in the first half of the 17th century, the farmhouse belonged to the Compagnia della Concezione, which sold it in 1689 to Ballardi, made Count of Roccafranca in 1734. An early-19th-century wing gave the plan its C shape, recorded as "Ferme Rocafranca" on the 1805 Napoleonic map. In the 1930s FIAT and Lancia workers lived here; the City bought it in late September 2002 and reopened it as a civic centre on 18 May 2007.
The name Roccafranca comes from the Ballardi family, who were granted the title Count of Roccafranca in 1734. Since 2007 the farmhouse has housed the district branch of Turin's Ecomuseo Urbano and was the first of the city's Case del Quartiere network.
The farmhouse stands in Mirafiori Nord, on the right side of the road toward Orbassano, about two and a half miles from central Turin. It reopened as a civic centre on 18 May 2007 after restoration under the EU Urban 2 programme. Inside are the district branch of Turin's Ecomuseo Urbano and one of the city's Case del Quartiere.
Cascina Roccafranca was the first "Casa del Quartiere" created in Turin, and it hosts the district branch of the city's Ecomuseo Urbano. Its recovery came under the European Union Urban 2 programme, the same one that led to the reopening of the Cappella Anselmetti and the creation of Stefano Arienti's Multiplayer artwork.
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