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Jan 13 2006
Fifty-seven metres high, it is fuelled by gas supplied by Italgas.
It will hold high the Olympic Flame from the 10th to the 26th
of February.
The Olympic Cauldron towers today over the Olympic Stadium of Torino.
This morning the last segment was assembled, the twisted top part, where
the Flame will burn. Rising 57 metres, the Cauldron of Torino 2006 is the
tallest in the history of the Olympic Games, and on next February 10th,
with its lighting, the XX Olympic Winter Games will formally open.
Positioned on the north-south axis of the Olympic Stadium, about 60
metres from the outside perimeter of the stands, it will be an Olympic
symbol that people can see from all over the city. It has a lighting
mechanism that is being kept secret until the last moment, After the
Cauldron is lit, it will hold and protect the Flame of Olympus until the
26th of February, when the Closing Ceremony will bring to an
end the XX Olympic Winter Games of Torino 2006.
Designed by Pininfarina, the Cauldron will burn thanks to the fundamental
contribution of Italgas, Sponsor of the Olympic Games, as an Official
Supplier and Official Partner of the Paralympic Games. It is an important
contribution, from the technological point of view and for the supply of
gas.
One of the most important historical symbols of the Olympic Event, the
Cauldron has the role of holding and displaying the Olympic Flame during
the Games. Since 1928 (the year when it was formally introduced), it has
marked the opening and the closing of the Olympic celebrations, and with
a perfect equilibrium between symbol, design and function, it allows the
host country to express the culture, the soul and the history of an
entire nation.
The creative project of the Cauldron of Torino 2006 was founded on the
desire to represent in a single object the tension of the Olympic
challenge: five powerful columns rise upwards towards the sky,
representing the values of the Olympic Spirit. As they climb towards the
heavens, competitive tension generates a twist of pure energy that is
transformed immediately into the Flame.
The structure of the cauldron has three main “conci” (vertical segments),
respectively 31 m., 15 m., and 11 m. high; the last is the twisted part.
Due to the height of the Olympic Stadium (about 26 m), the Flame can be
seen from all over Torino. The Cauldron is made up of five tubular
structures, with a diameter of 60 cm that wind around in a circumference
3 m. of diameter. A sixth central tube starts at the base and arrives at
the summit, widening in the last three metres. It forms the place for the
burners that will produce a flame 4 metres high. The five outside tubes
twist around each other in the final part and are crossed by the central
one. |