Description
Palazzo Madama stands on Piazza Castello, in the heart of Turin, and is made of layers: in front a Baroque facade of white stone, behind a medieval castle with towers, underneath a gate of the Roman city. Inside is the Museo Civico d'Arte Antica, the city's museum of ancient art.
Visitors find two thousand years of history in a single building, with a museum of sculptures, paintings and porcelain. The complex is a World Heritage Site, as part of the Savoy residences.
The facade and staircase by Juvarra are the most spectacular part: above a rusticated ground floor rises a block with large windows, columns and a balustrade of vases and white marble statues. Inside, light enters from three sides and four columns hold up the vault of the staircase.
The medieval castle of the princes of Acaja, a branch of the Savoys, is the one with the square plan around a courtyard and portico and the four cylindrical towers, still recognizable on three sides. It was reworked by Ludovico d'Acaja in the 1400s.
In the excavations beneath the foundations, traces of earlier buildings have emerged, down to the Roman gate. Another stop is the Hall of the Subalpine Senate, recovered and inaugurated in 2011 for the 150th anniversary of Italian unification.
The name comes from two women. In the 1600s two regents, the "Madame Reali" Christine of France and Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours, made it their residence, far from the heavy air of the court.
For the second, Filippo Juvarra designed an enormous Baroque palace, meant to hide the old castle. As so often with the Savoys, the project stopped halfway: by 1721 only the front block with the staircase was ready.
The castle long served as the residence for the Savoys' guests. In 1494 Charles VIII of France slept here, on his march toward the Kingdom of Naples: the regent Bianca of Montferrat gave up her apartments to him. From 1578, at solemn celebrations, the Savoys displayed the Holy Shroud from here.
Then the palace was everything: an astronomical observatory, home of the Royal Picture Gallery, seat of the Subalpine Senate. Since 1934 it has housed the Museo Civico d'Arte Antica.
Don't miss
• Juvarra's staircase.
• The medieval castle.
• The Hall of the Subalpine Senate.
• The Museo Civico d'Arte Antica.
Did you know?
• The big windows of the staircase also served the people in the square, to watch the great Baroque festivities.
• On May 6, 1949, the bodies of the Grande Torino were laid out here: 500,000 people attended the funeral.
Visitors find two thousand years of history in a single building, with a museum of sculptures, paintings and porcelain. The complex is a World Heritage Site, as part of the Savoy residences.
The facade and staircase by Juvarra are the most spectacular part: above a rusticated ground floor rises a block with large windows, columns and a balustrade of vases and white marble statues. Inside, light enters from three sides and four columns hold up the vault of the staircase.
The medieval castle of the princes of Acaja, a branch of the Savoys, is the one with the square plan around a courtyard and portico and the four cylindrical towers, still recognizable on three sides. It was reworked by Ludovico d'Acaja in the 1400s.
In the excavations beneath the foundations, traces of earlier buildings have emerged, down to the Roman gate. Another stop is the Hall of the Subalpine Senate, recovered and inaugurated in 2011 for the 150th anniversary of Italian unification.
The name comes from two women. In the 1600s two regents, the "Madame Reali" Christine of France and Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours, made it their residence, far from the heavy air of the court.
For the second, Filippo Juvarra designed an enormous Baroque palace, meant to hide the old castle. As so often with the Savoys, the project stopped halfway: by 1721 only the front block with the staircase was ready.
The castle long served as the residence for the Savoys' guests. In 1494 Charles VIII of France slept here, on his march toward the Kingdom of Naples: the regent Bianca of Montferrat gave up her apartments to him. From 1578, at solemn celebrations, the Savoys displayed the Holy Shroud from here.
Then the palace was everything: an astronomical observatory, home of the Royal Picture Gallery, seat of the Subalpine Senate. Since 1934 it has housed the Museo Civico d'Arte Antica.
Don't miss
• Juvarra's staircase.
• The medieval castle.
• The Hall of the Subalpine Senate.
• The Museo Civico d'Arte Antica.
Did you know?
• The big windows of the staircase also served the people in the square, to watch the great Baroque festivities.
• On May 6, 1949, the bodies of the Grande Torino were laid out here: 500,000 people attended the funeral.