Palazzo dell'Accademia delle Scienze and Egyptian Museum

Why is it significant?

Stand before the imposing, sober dark-brick facade of the Palazzo dell'Accademia delle Scienze, one of the most monumental seventeenth-century public buildings in Turin.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Stand before the imposing, sober dark-brick facade of the Palazzo dell'Accademia delle Scienze, one of the most monumental seventeenth-century public buildings in Turin. Commissioned in 1679 by Regent Maria Giovanna Battista of Savoy-Nemours and designed by Guarino Guarini as the Jesuit College of Nobles to educate the scions of the Piedmontese aristocracy, the palace features monumental brick pilasters and an expansive vaulted entrance atrium. Since 1824, this magnificent complex has housed the Egyptian Museum of Turin, the oldest museum in the world dedicated entirely to ancient Egyptian civilization and universally recognized as second only to the Cairo Museum in the archaeological importance and scientific depth of its collections. The galleries display more than forty thousand catalogued artifacts spanning four millennia of Nile history, including fragile royal papyri, vividly painted wooden sarcophagi, monumental black granite statues, and untouched mummies. The ancient mysteries captivate all visitors. Visitors wander through quiet rooms filled with linen garments, daily tools, and cosmetic jars that vividly reconstruct ordinary life in ancient Thebes.

Walk into the breathtaking Kings Gallery scenographically designed by Oscar-winning art director Dante Ferretti: dramatic dark mirrors and focused spotlights illuminate colossal diorite and basalt statues of Pharaohs Ramesses II, Thutmose III, and the lioness-headed goddess Sekhmet, admired by Jean-François Champollion himself when he deciphered hieroglyphs here in 1824.

The museum was formally established when King Carlo Felice acquired the vast private collection of over five thousand ancient artifacts gathered by Bernardino Drovetti, a Piedmontese-born diplomat who served as Napoleon's consul general in Egypt.

Marvel at the famous Royal Canon of Turin: this fragile papyrus manuscript written during the reign of Ramesses II is the single most valuable chronological document in existence for dating the reigns of ancient Egyptian pharaohs.

Walk a few steps further along Via Accademia delle Scienze to arrive before the undulating brick facade of Palazzo Carignano.