Palazzo Birago di Borgaro by Filippo Juvarra
Why is it significant?
Look up at the graceful and theatrical facade of Palazzo Birago di Borgaro on Via Carlo Alberto, at the intersection with Via San Dalmazzo.
Key Facts
| Place | Palazzo Birago di Borgaro by Filippo Juvarra |
|---|---|
| Address | Via Carlo Alberto 16, 10123 Turin, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 45.07050, 7.67900 |
| Part of Walk | Piazza San Carlo, Egyptian Museum and Palazzo Carignano: The Elegant Heart of Turin |
| Generated | Generated |
Look up at the graceful and theatrical facade of Palazzo Birago di Borgaro on Via Carlo Alberto, at the intersection with Via San Dalmazzo. Constructed between 1716 and 1720 for Count Carlo Birago di Borgaro, royal privy councillor and Savoy diplomat, this building represents one of the very few private urban residences entirely designed in Turin by the supreme master Filippo Juvarra. The brilliant Sicilian architect abandoned the austere severity customary in seventeenth-century Piedmontese palace fronts to introduce a lighter, more theatrical architectural language: the facade is anchored by an imposing round-arched stone portal flanked by paired columns, leading into an extraordinary elliptical vaulted vestibule that dilates the perspective toward an intimate square courtyard. Today the institutional headquarters of the Turin Chamber of Commerce, the palazzo preserves stenciled ceilings and gilded stuccowork of the Juvarra school. Wrought-iron balconies add Parisian grace to the streetscape. The grand state rooms on the piano nobile feature ornate gold-leaf cornices and trompe-l'oeil frescoes created by skilled Venetian and Piedmontese decorative masters.
Step into the entrance vestibule to admire the interplay of vaults and columns: Juvarra ingeniously transformed a narrow, irregular urban plot into a masterwork of monumental perspective, channeling natural daylight through the stairwells with the same theatrical mastery he applied in royal palaces.
Count Birago di Borgaro was among the most skilled diplomats serving King Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy: he helped negotiate the landmark Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, which elevated the Duke of Savoy to royal status and created the Kingdom of Sicily and later Sardinia.
Notice the sculpted mascaron faces grinning above the piano nobile windows: these whimsical stone grotesques smile ironically down upon passersby, a playful signature of Juvarra's inventive Rococo detailing.
Walk north along the street to reach the intersection with Via Garibaldi and the Church of the Holy Martyrs.