Count Severino Casana (Severino Ignazio Elleno Maria, Conte dei Baroni Casana) was one of the four Vice Presidents of the Comitato Generale (General Committee) for the organization of the International Exposition of Turin 1911. Trained as a civil engineer (laurea in 1863), he served as mayor of Turin from 1898 to 1902 and member of the Camera dei deputati from 1886 to 1897. On May 1, 1898 he was named senator of the Kingdom of Italy. He pursued an academic career at the Scuola di Applicazione per Ingegneri di Torino (today’s Politecnico), where he held a chair in architecture until 1891. He was the first civilian minister of War from 1907 to 1909 in the Giolitti government, and Vice President of the Italian Senate in 1912. In 1885, he inherited the castle of Montalto Dora, which he had restored by famed architect Alfredo D’Andrade, who also designed the Borgo Medievale in the Park of Valentino.