History

The Veterinary School of Piedmont was founded in 1769 at the behest of King Charles Emmanuel III, who had sent 4 surgeons to study in Lyon at a school which had been established in 1762.
When the best of the four surgeons, Giovanni Brugnone (1741-1818), returned to Italy, he was entrusted with establishing an institute similar to the one he had gone to while in France. For this, he was given some rooms within the hunting pavilion of the Venaria Royal Castle. The school, which was chaired by Brugnone – who was also the only teacher – was attached to the Ministry of War and was mainly responsible for army horse care. In 1973, the School was first moved to Mandria (Chivasso) and then, in 1800, when Piedmont was under the French dominion, within the Valentino Castle in Turin.
Activities were suspended between 1814 and 1818, with the School only being reopened after the House of Savoy was restored. The School was located in Venaria Reale, under the supervision of Carlo Lessona (1784-1858). The School, however, will continue changing venues, moving from Fossano (1834) back to Venaria (1841). From 1847 to 1851, the School was replaced with a Veterinary, Agricultural and Forestry Institute, and it was only in 1859 (ninety years after its establishment) when the School was moved to Via Nizza, 52, in Turin.
Finally, as of 1934 the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine is part of the University of Turin.
In the AY 1996/97 a new wing of classrooms shared with the Agricultural Faculty was inaugurated at the Gurgliasco complex.
The construction of departmental and clinical and hospital buildings, including the agro-zootechnical farm, was completed in 1999.
Between 1999 and 2001, the Faculty was moved to the new and modern site of Grugliasco
As already said, the first School’s century of existence was difficult due to the numerous change of venues and management (from the Ministry of War to that of Health, and from the Ministry of Education to that of Industry and Trade).
All of this shows how it took a long and very laborious process before the tasks and legal form of what would become the Regia Scuola Superiore di Medicina Veterinaria (Royal High School of Veterinary Medicine) became clear. The School was recognised as equivalent to universities (but with autonomy of management) and in the beginning only awarded veterinary diplomas. In fact, veterinary degrees only became available later on.
Among the most important people involved in teaching and research activities were the abovementioned Carlo Lessona, who founded the first Italian journal of veterinary sciences in 1838; Felice Perosino (1805-1887), who besides being an anatomist served as the first corps’ chief veterinary officer; Domenico Vallada (1822-1888), who taught pathology, hygiene and animal husbandry, and was one of the first to focus on hygiene of foodstuffs of animal origin; Roberto Bassi (1830-1914), who was a renowned teacher of surgery; Edoardo Perroncito (1847-1936), who taught pathology and was known in particular for being given the first chair in Parasitology worldwide, in addition to eradicating Ancylostomiasis, a very serious and common disease that causes parasitic worms to live in the duodenum.