The foundation act of Cimitero Monumentale di Torino dates back to 1828.
The new site, called "Primitive Field", project of the Arch. Gaetano Lombardi, is organised on an octagonal plan, with a chapel and service buildings, surrounded by an enclosure wall with large "Neo-Egyptian" style niches. A circular surface is erected in the centre, dominated by a Calvary with a Cross rising above the ossuary crypt.
Later several enlargements were built: in 1841 (project by the Savoy Architect Carlo Sada), in 1866, in 1880-1881 (by Eng. Carlo Ceppi), in 1883 following a previous project by Sada.
The general project to extend the Cemetery area, approved in 1886, underlined the need to straighten the river course and also deliberated the construction of the fifth Enlargement, a new portico following Ceppi's model. With the spread of cremation, in 1882 was built a Crematorium Temple.

In 1888 was inaugurated the complex, a project by the Arch. Pompeo Marini, and in 1895 the funeral Niches with a portico Dorian style was added on a project by Eng. Daniele Donghi. Other works followed until the second half of 1900.
Although the layout of the Turin Monumental Cemetery developed in different steps over time, some stylistic homogeneity can be identified, especially because of the arcade structures of the enlargements.
There are works by many authors since the first years of XIX century, such as Gaetano Lombardi, Vincenzo Vela, Odoardo Tabacchi, until the XX century authors Pietro Canonica, Leonardo Bistolfi, Edoardo Rubino, and the latest works by Umberto Mastroianni, Carlo Mollino, and Giacomo Soffiantino.