Italy · 14th century
Palazzo Madama is a palace in Turin, Piedmont. It was the first Senate of the Kingdom of Italy, and takes its traditional name from the embellishments it received under two queens (madama) of the House of Savoy.
In 1997, it was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list along with 13 other residences of the House of Savoy.
At the beginning of the first century BC, the site of the palace was occupied by a gate in the Roman walls from which the decumanus maximus of Augusta Taurinorum (the ancient name of Turin) departed. Two of the towers, although restored, still testify to this original nucleus. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the gate was used as a fortified stronghold in the defences of the city.
Later the building became a possession of the Savoia-Acaja, a secondary branch of the House of Savoy; in the early 14th century, they enlarged it into a castle. A century later Ludovico of Acaja rebuilt it in square shape, with an inner court and a portico, and four cylindrical towers at each corner. The form of this edifice is still clearly recognisable from the back section of the palace. After the extinction of the Acajas, the edifice became a residence for guests of the House of Savoy.
In 1637 the regent for Duke Charles Emmanuel II, Christine of France (aunt of Louis XIV), chose it as her personal residence. She commissioned the covering of the court and a revamping of the inner apartments. Sixty years later another regent, Marie Jeanne of Savoy, who was known as Madama Reale, lived in the palace. She conferred upon it definitively the nickname of Madama (Italian for Madame). She invited many artists to renovate the building which the duchess wanted to turn into a sumptuous royal palace. The artist Domenico Guidobono became the undisputed protagonist of the decorations of the halls on the first floor of Palazzo Madama, known as the Guidobono halls – the Madama Reale’s Chamber, the Chinese Cabinet, and the Southern Veranda.
The duchess also asked architect Filippo Juvarra to design a new Baroque palace in white stone, which he did in 1716, but the works halted in 1721 after only the front section had been completed.
Later the palace had various uses, and housed the headquarters of the provisional French government during the Napoleonic Wars.
Text adapted from “Palazzo Madama, Turin” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Palazzo Madama and Casaforte degli Acaja, Turin ranks #463 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #33 of the 560 mapped in Italy. Founded c. 1310, it is older than 60% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 755 atlas entries founded in the 14th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 10,217 times in the last 60 days, more than 94% of the atlas. 10 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Turin, 1 km away. See how Italy compares in the castle statistics.
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