Piazza Palazzo di Citta and Turin City Hall
Why is it significant?
Pause in the dignified, harmonious rectangular courtyard of Piazza Palazzo di Citta, historically known as Piazza delle Erbe, the civic center of municipal governance and local democracy in Turin since the medieval commune.
Key Facts
| Place | Piazza Palazzo di Citta and Turin City Hall |
|---|---|
| Address | Piazza Palazzo di Città 1, 10122 Turin, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 45.07280, 7.68180 |
| Part of Walk | Royal Palaces, Shroud Cathedral and Roman Quarter: The Imperial Origins of Turin |
| Generated | Generated |
Pause in the dignified, harmonious rectangular courtyard of Piazza Palazzo di Citta, historically known as Piazza delle Erbe, the civic center of municipal governance and local democracy in Turin since the medieval commune. Dominating the western side rises Palazzo di Citta, Turin's historic city hall, reconstructed between 1659 and 1663 by ducal architect Francesco Lanfranchi and later enhanced by Filippo Juvarra with a stately colonnaded entrance atrium and grand council chambers. The classical facade in pale plaster and Corinthian pilasters, crowned by a rooftop balustrade with allegorical marble statues, expresses the orderly decorum of civic administration. Standing at the exact centre of the square is the dynamic bronze monument to Amedeo VI of Savoy, the celebrated Green Count, sculpted in 1853 by Pelagio Palagi: the medieval warrior duke is dramatically captured in the act of unhorsing a Turkish adversary with his lance during his 1366 Black Sea crusades. Arcades and heritage cafes give the square timeless appeal. The surrounding stone porticoes house historic confectioneries and traditional bookshops where residents have congregated since the eighteenth century for daily conversation.
Observe the uniform surrounding porticoes designed in 1756 by court architect Benedetto Alfieri: they harmonized civic shops and municipal cafes into an elegant public drawing room where Turin's mayors and aldermen met daily with merchants and local citizens.
In front of this city hall in March 1848, King Carlo Alberto publicly proclaimed the Statuto Albertino, the fundamental constitutional charter that governed the Kingdom of Sardinia and later unified Italy until the 1948 republican constitution.
Notice the historic bell in the municipal clock tower: for centuries its urgent ringing summoned the citizens to armed assembly during hostile sieges and major municipal fires.
Walk north through the narrow cobblestone lanes to enter the vast octagonal expanse of Piazza della Repubblica at Porta Palazzo.