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Palazzo Carignano

Baroque palace by Guarino Guarini (from 1679), home of the Savoy-Carignano family, seat of the Subalpine Parliament and of the first Italian Parliament, today the Museum of the Risorgimento.

Palazzo Carignano is the Baroque palace in the centre of Turin, a few steps from piazza Castello, designed by Guarino Guarini starting in 1679 for the junior branch of the Savoy-Carignano family. Carlo Alberto and Vittorio Emanuele II were born there, from 1848 it housed the Chamber of Deputies of the Subalpine Parliament, and on 17 March 1861, in its courtyard, the Unification of Italy was proclaimed[1]. Since 1938 the main floor has housed the Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano[1].

Guarini's palace

The building was commissioned by prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy-Carignano, who in the seventeenth century wanted it to assert the prestige of his house[1]. Guarini designed it with an eye to Gian Lorenzo Bernini's projects for Louis XIV's Louvre; the result, according to the city's history as told by MuseoTorino, is a kind of prototype royal palace for a sovereign of the absolute state[2]. Its most striking novelty is the red-brick façade, which in the central section curves into a concave-and-convex wave, a solution the museum calls “unique of its kind”[1].

The building work, begun in 1679, was completed only after the architect's death. Already in 1933 the Enciclopedia Italiana noted the role of whoever led the works on the technical side:

«The construction was completed after G.'s death; and it may be that some details belong to Francesco Barocelli, who directed the construction on the technical side.»

Mario Labò, entry "Guarini, Guarino", Enciclopedia Italiana, 1933

The quotation is taken from the Treccani entry[3]. The palace's mass immediately entered into the design of the Baroque city: when in 1715 Filippo Juvarra designed the rebuilding of Guarini's church of San Filippo Neri, he had to contend with the Collegio dei Nobili facing it and with the bulk of Palazzo Carignano[2].

The residence of the princes

The building was the home of the Carignano, a collateral branch of the House of Savoy. Two commemorative plaques still recall that within these walls Carlo Alberto and his son Vittorio Emanuele II were born[4]. In 1831, having become king, Carlo Alberto moved to Palazzo Reale and the family palace passed to the State Property Office[4]. On the ground floor the Appartamenti dei Principi di Carignano are preserved, with gilded boiseries and ceilings frescoed with mythological subjects, included in the circuit of the Royal Residences of the Savoy[1][4].

The Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Sardinia

In 1848, with the granting of the Statute, Carlo Alberto chose Palazzo Carignano as the seat of the new elective Chamber of the Kingdom of Sardinia. The old elliptical ballroom was turned into the chamber by the architect Carlo Sada in little more than a month[5]. Sada himself, called on to rethink the palace's public spaces, continued working on the Chamber's rooms and service areas until 1860[6].

The legislative activity of the Sardinian Kingdom took place in this chamber from 8 May 1848 to 28 December 1860[7]. Cavour, Vincenzo Gioberti and Massimo d'Azeglio spoke there[5]; Gioberti, the Chamber's first president, now has his statue in the square in front, next to that of Vittorio Alfieri[7]. As new territories were annexed the number of deputies grew and the hall became too small: the last sitting closed on 28 December 1860 at 2:30 p.m., and a clock with its date display stopped at that moment is still visible next to the king's portrait[5]. The museum presents it as the only parliamentary chamber of 1848 still intact in Europe; it is a national monument[5].

The first Parliament of Italy

On 18 February 1861 the 8th legislature, the first of the Italian Parliament, opened at Palazzo Carignano[7]. To accommodate the deputies of the new provinces a temporary chamber was built in the central courtyard, and there, on 17 March 1861, Vittorio Emanuele II promulgated the act that founded the Kingdom of Italy[4]. Cavour wrote a passionate account of it: “Parliament, on the solemn day of the royal sitting, with the enthusiasm of gratitude and affection, acclaimed Vittorio Emanuele II King of Italy”[7].

Turin, the new state's first capital, wanted to give the Chamber a permanent seat. The palace was extended with a new wing facing piazza Carlo Alberto: the designs were provided in 1864 by Domenico Ferri and the execution was overseen by Giuseppe Bollati, who died in 1869, two years before the works were finished[8]. The historian Luciano Tamburini, in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, sees in it a grandiose, scenographic architecture of representation, blending Renaissance and Baroque without any real personal character[8]. The transfer of the capital to Florence, in 1865, made the project pointless: the great monumental hall was never used by Parliament[4][9].

The Museum of the Risorgimento

The Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano was born in 1878, when Turin, having lost its status as capital, wanted to commemorate its own contribution to unification; inaugurated in 1908 in the Mole Antonelliana and later moved to the Valentino at the end of the 1920s, it has been housed at Palazzo Carignano since 1938[9]. Completely refurbished, it reopened in 2011[9].

The exhibition occupies thirty rooms of the main floor, with over 2,500 objects including documents, paintings, portraits and relics of Cavour, Garibaldi and the other protagonists of the Risorgimento[1][10]. It includes both the Subalpine Chamber and the never-used hall of the Italian Chamber, where four large canvases dedicated to the decisive battles of the Risorgimento are displayed[1]. The museum's entrance is at piazza Carlo Alberto 8[1].

Pages linking here

Stati Generali della Cooperazione Internazionale degli Enti Territoriali (September 2026)

On 27 September 2026 the Stati Generali della Cooperazione Internazionale degli Enti Territoriali open at Palazzo Carignano, promoted by the City of Turin with the participation of mayors and local administrators from four continents.

Chronology

  • — The Stati Generali della Cooperazione Internazionale degli Enti Territoriali open at Palazzo Carignano, promoted by the City of Turin with the participation of mayors and local administrators from four continents. → TorinoClick TorinoClick
  • — In the Sala Cortile of Palazzo Carignano, Turin and the Mongolian city of Kharkhorin sign the Letter of Intent that paves the way for the renewal of their cooperation agreement, signed by mayor Stefano Lo Russo and the governor of Kharkhorin Bat-Erdene Byamba as part of Terra Madre Salone del Gusto. → TorinoClick CronacaQui Torino

Related articles: Camillo Benso di Cavour, Cappella della Sindone, Guarino Guarini, Palazzo Reale, Piazza Castello, States General of International Cooperation of Local Authorities in Turin (September 2026)

Sources

  1. Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano
  2. MuseoTorino (Città di Torino)
  3. Treccani – Enciclopedia Italiana —
  4. Residenze Reali Sabaude
  5. Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano
  6. Treccani – Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani —
  7. Torino Oggi — 16 March 2022
  8. Treccani – Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani —
  9. Città di Torino – Musei
  10. Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano
  11. TorinoClick — 27 September 2026
  12. TorinoClick — 27 September 2026

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