Piazza Savoia and Siccardi Obelisk

Why is it significant?

Stand in the spacious, rectangular expanse of Piazza Savoia, one of the most significant urban intersections of Turin's second western baroque expansion.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Stand in the spacious, rectangular expanse of Piazza Savoia, one of the most significant urban intersections of Turin's second western baroque expansion. Soaring at the centre of the square is the bold Siccardi Obelisk, an imposing monolith of Baveno granite rising more than twenty-one metres high, inaugurated on the twenty-third of November 1853 to designs by painter-architect Luigi Quarenghi. The monument was funded through an extraordinary public subscription campaign led by the liberal daily newspaper La Gazzetta del Popolo to celebrate the passage of the landmark laws introduced in 1850 by Justice Minister Giuseppe Siccardi. These groundbreaking secular reforms abolished outdated feudal privileges of the Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Sardinia—including separate ecclesiastical courts, church asylum rights, and tax-exempt landholdings—marking a decisive milestone toward a modern secular constitution and civil liberties for all citizens. The square is framed by dignified eighteenth-century noble residences in warm ochre tones. The open piazza retains its historic cobblestones and carriage gateways, offering a quiet oasis of architectural harmony just steps from the lively bustle of Via Garibaldi.

Inspect the granite base of the obelisk: sealed inside the massive foundation stones lies a lead casket containing copies of the kingdom's statutes, contemporary newspapers, silver coins, and the inscribed names of more than twenty-six thousand citizens and municipalities that contributed donations to build this civic monument.

The monument ignited fierce political controversy: Archbishop Luigi Fransoni refused last rites to dying government minister Pietro De Rossi di Santarosa because he supported the Siccardi Laws, sparking popular protests that eventually forced the prelate into permanent exile in Lyon.

Notice the serene dignity of the square: the understated facades of surrounding palazzi, including nearby Palazzo Saluzzo di Paesana, embody the disciplined elegance of late Savoy neoclassical architecture.

Walk southwest along Via del Carmine to discover Filippo Juvarra's masterwork church of the Madonna del Carmine.