The Historical Wing, the New Wing and the Old Chapel

Audio

Descrizione

Born in 1869, Count Emanuele Cacherano di Bricherasio was the second child of Luigi Cacherano di Bricherasio and Teresa Massel di Caresana. As was the tradition in the family, at the age of seventeen he enrolled in the military academy, where he met Federico Caprilli, who from that moment on became a close friend of the Bricherasio family. Emanuele served in the army as a cavalry officer, retiring with the rank of lieutenant when he was twenty-three years old to take over the administration of the family’s massive estate.

Driven by his great enthusiasm for automobiles, technology, and all things modern, he was one of the first members of the Italian aristocracy to gauge the extraordinary potential of the mechanical industry. In 1895 he was promoter of Italy’s first-ever motor race and founded the Italian Automobile Club (the ACI) that same year. In 1898, in partnership with friends, he founded the company Accomandita Ceirano & C., which would develop and patent the first Italian automobile, a prototype known as the “Welleys.” The success of the project prompted Emanuele to look for co-investors to scale the operation up to a true industrial venture. In 1899, he was promoter, leading investor, and one of the founding shareholders of the original Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, better known today as FIAT. The painter Lorenzo Delleani would depict him at the center of the scene, signing the articles of incorporation, in his work The Founders of FIAT. He continued his business career as vice-president of the company, surrounded by the most eminent people of the age.

A prominent and popular socialite, Emanuele Cacherano was a firm believer in social progress. His opinions and undisguised Socialist-leaning sympathies would earn him the nickname “the Red Count.”

Emanuele died in 1904 at just thirty-four years of age, during a stay at Agliè Castle. The circumstances of his death still remain shrouded in mystery, the subject of historical debate. His tomb, sculpted by the family friend Leonardo Bistolfi, is found in the Bricherasio Chapel at Fubine Castle, where he lies alongside his sister Sofia and dear friend Federico Caprilli.

His epitaph reads: “His industrious life was too short for the vastness of his dream.”