The Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino dates back to 1759 when King Vittorio Amedeo III of the Savoy family appointed Giovanni Battista Beccaria to determine the local meridian, ‘Gradus Taurinensis’. The astronomical instruments used for these measurements became the heart of the Observatory, which, at that time was located in a palace in the city centre. It stayed there until 1912, when it was moved to the hills of Pino Torinese. Torino’s astronomical school began by studying the celestial mechanics formulated by Joseph Louis Lagrange who founded Torino’s Accademia delle Scienze. Classical astrometry, geodesy and planetology were the main focus of astronomy in Torino for a long time until the 20th century.