Piazza Statuto Tours

Like many public squares in Italy, Turin's Piazza Statuto has something of a checkered past, including supposed ties to black magic.

Piazza Statuto was built in 1864 in order to make the four entry points to the city symmetrical—the other three entrances already had piazzas. The piazza is ringed on three sides by Baroque buildings, and there is a small garden at its center. Long before the piazza was built, during the Roman Empire, this spot was an execution site.

The piazza also features a monument to the people who built the Frejus Tunnel, connecting Italy and France through the mountains. The monument features an angel at the top, with figures representing the workers climbing over a mountain of boulders underneath. The sculpture is near a manhole cover in the pavement, which some say is a doorway to hell and has led the piazza to be associated with black magic over the years.