Piazza Castello and Palazzo Madama

Why is it significant?

Stand in the middle of Piazza Castello, the sweeping open-air ceremonial stage where the political and royal heart of Turin has beaten for more than four centuries.

Key Facts

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Stand in the middle of Piazza Castello, the sweeping open-air ceremonial stage where the political and royal heart of Turin has beaten for more than four centuries. Laid out from 1584 by the ducal architect Ascanio Vitozzi for Duke Carlo Emanuele I of Savoy, this grand piazza unified the ancient medieval fabric around the old castle, opening the grand baroque radial avenues toward the gates of the city. Rising at the exact centre is the extraordinary hybrid monument of Palazzo Madama: its eastern rear facade of austere red brick retains the crenellated towers of a fourteenth-century fortress and ancient Roman city gate, while its western front presents a dazzling theatrical screen of pale marble and Chianocco stone designed in 1721 by court architect Filippo Juvarra for Queen Mother Maria Giovanna Battista of Savoy-Nemours. This stark contrast between medieval stronghold and baroque palace perfectly embodies the Savoy dynasty's ambition to transform an alpine duchy into a major European monarchy. The surrounding arcades provide shaded shelter from winter snows. Gaze up at Juvarra's double-ramp monumental grand staircase inside Palazzo Madama: flooded with natural daylight through immense floor-to-ceiling windows facing the square, this masterpiece of perspective and airy grandeur was built to dazzle visiting foreign ambassadors, later hosting the very first Senate of the Kingdom of Italy following national unification in 1861. The name Palazzo Madama honours two formidable Savoy royal regents: Christine of France in the seventeenth century and Maria Giovanna Battista in the eighteenth century, visionary women who ruled with iron determination during turbulent dynastic crises. Look down at the grey Luserna stone slabs beneath your feet: you are walking directly above the Roman decumanus maximus paved by Emperor Augustus's legionaries in twenty-eight BC. Walk north through the grand gilded iron gates into the solemn courtyard of the Royal Palace of Turin.