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Palazzo Reale

The Palazzo Reale ("Royal Palace") of Turin is the residence that the House of Savoy built, inhabited and remodelled for three centuries, from the late sixteenth century until 1865. It closes off the north side of piazza Castello and is the geographical, strategic and political centre of the Savoy capital[1]. The entrance is at piazzetta Reale 1. [13] From here began the system of court residences that UNESCO listed as a World Heritage Site in 1997 under the name Residences of the Royal House of Savoy: the palace is the heart of the so-called "Zona di comando" ("Command Zone"), together with Palazzo Chiablese and the Prefecture building[2]. Today it is part of the Musei Reali (Royal Museums) complex[1].

From the bishop's palace to the royal residence

When Emanuele Filiberto returned to Turin in 1563 and made it the capital of his states, he did not build a new residence: he chose to lodge with the archbishop, next to the cathedral, and invested instead in the Citadel[3]. It was Carlo Emanuele I who, in 1584, ordered a palace for the court, entrusting the design to Ascanio Vitozzi[1]. According to MuseoTorino, construction took place between 1639 and 1642, and from 1643 the works, initially overseen by engineer Maurizio Valperga, passed to Amedeo di Castellamonte and then to the captain-engineer Carlo Morello, who died in 1665. [14]

The building's present form, however, took shape in the mid-seventeenth century, after the civil war of 1639-1642[1]. It was Cristina di Francia, widow of Vittorio Amedeo I, who abandoned the plan to enlarge the old ducal palace towards the cathedral and instead used its materials to erect a great royal residence; the work, entrusted to the ducal engineer Amedeo di Castellamonte, began around 1646[4]. Castellamonte resolved the palace and the square together: a building open on one side onto the gardens, abutting the cathedral on the other, and facing the via Nuova in front. The façade, from 1658, is deliberately sober; the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani judges it "rather neutral despite the elegance of its details"[4].

The seventeenth century: twin apartments and French-style gardens

The first major decorative campaign came in 1660, with the marriage of Carlo Emanuele II and Françoise d'Orléans Valois: two mirror-image apartments were created, one for the duke and one for the duchess[1]. The decorative programme was devised by the court rhetorician Emanuele Tesauro, and in 1684 the palace was extended with the east and north wings. [14] In 1684 the Viennese painter Daniel Seiter frescoed the gallery that still bears his name, the "Galleria del Daniel", while at the end of the century André Le Nôtre designed the garden[1]. MuseoTorino, however, dates Seiter's arrival from Rome to 1688; the state rooms also include the Salone degli Svizzeri (Hall of the Swiss Guards) and the Sala dei Paggi (Hall of the Pages). [14]

Juvarra and the century of kings

With the royal title obtained in 1713, the palace had to become the residence of a king[1]. In 1714 Vittorio Amedeo II appointed Filippo Juvarra "first civil architect", and the architect opened the building site with the Scala delle Forbici ("Scissors Staircase"), designed and built in 1720-1721[5]. There followed the court theatre known as "del Rondeau" (1722), the rebuilding of the old Teatro Regio (1722-1723), new arrangements of the palace in 1730-1732, the king's private archives (1733-1734) and, from 1732, the Queen's gallery, later known as the Beaumont gallery and today home to the Armoury. In 1730 Juvarra also designed the new Teatro Regio, later built by Benedetto Alfieri[5].

Claudio Francesco Beaumont, court painter from 1731, worked in the palace for many years. Between 1731 and 1733 he decorated the study and the dressing room dedicated to King Carlo Emanuele III; in 1737 he painted the Judgement of Paris on the vault of the Chinese Cabinet, above the oriental lacquer panels and the frames designed by Juvarra, and in the same year payments are recorded for the frescoes of the great gallery, the Royal Armoury; in 1748 he completed the Galleria delle Battaglie (Gallery of Battles)[6].

Carlo Alberto, Palagi and the Statute

In the nineteenth century the look of the interiors changed again. Carlo Alberto brought Pelagio Palagi to Turin, appointed him "painter in charge of the decoration of the Royal Palaces" in 1834, and from 1835 entrusted him with the refurbishment of the palace, which continued until the mid-1840s[7]. Palagi directed dozens of painters and craftsmen, among them Francesco Gonin, moving from neoclassical to neo-Gothic style. The idea for the Library vault is his, with its allegories of letters, sciences and the arts (designs from 1841, executed by Angelo Moja and Marco Antonio Trefogli), as is the altarpiece of the private chapel known as "del Pregadio", finished in 1845[7]. For the ceiling of the ballroom, finished only in 1858, he chose a motto that reads almost as a programme for court life:

"With the help of the gods, enjoying honest pleasures adorned by the teachings of the joyful muses, the hours pass in time with the harmonious motion of time"[7]

Pelagio Palagi, inscription on the ceiling of the ballroom, 1858

In the palace Carlo Alberto presided over the Council of Ministers, and it was here, on 4 March 1848, that Carlo Alberto signed the Statute that bears his name[8]. In 1862 the new grand staircase was built. [13] The Palazzo Reale was later the residence of Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of Italy, until 1865[8], while the Chamber of Deputies sat at Palazzo Carignano[8].

After the capital moved away

In September 1864 news of the capital's transfer sparked protests among the people of Turin: on 22 September police charged the crowd gathered in front of the Prefecture in piazza San Carlo, in what became known as the "Turin massacre", leaving 42 dead and 123 wounded; after three hundred years as a capital, the city had to invent itself a new role[9]. Between 1899 and 1903 the architect Emilio Stramucci rebuilt the north-west wing; in the bombing raids of December 1942 and 13 July 1943 part of the roof collapsed and walls and windows were damaged on the via XX Settembre side, while the façade on piazzetta Reale was left unscathed. [14] After the Republic was founded, the palace passed to the state property office[1]. The royal family kept its residence there until 1946. [15]

In 1997 the "Zona di comando" was added to the World Heritage list, described as a large complex of buildings linked to the court, in which centralised power was exercised through political, administrative and cultural forms[2][10]. In 2016 the palace became part of the Musei Reali, which bring together in a single itinerary the state rooms, the Royal Armoury, the Galleria Sabauda and the Archaeological Museum[1][11].

The Musei Reali today

On 27 September 2018 the itinerary was extended to the Chapel of the Holy Shroud by Guarino Guarini, reopened after restoration following the fire of 11 April 1997: twenty-one years of work and 30 million euros, funded by the ministry with support from the city's foundations and companies, including the Compagnia di San Paolo[12]. "The restoration was a great challenge of technique and imagination," said the director of the Musei Reali, Enrica Pagella, that day[12].

Visitor numbers have grown quickly: the Musei Reali went from 360,847 visitors in 2017 to 461,250 in 2018, an increase of 27.82 per cent, the highest among the thirty most-visited state museums in Italy that year[11]. In 2025 the Musei Reali announced more than 28 million euros of investment, including the restoration of the sixteenth-century Bastion Verde ("Green Bastion") and the enclosure of the arcaded passage of the Corte d'onore (Court of Honour) with wooden frames based on nineteenth-century designs. [16]

The 2026 programme, under director Paola D'Agostino, includes the restoration of the towers on the north façade and of the Sala degli Staffieri, and, from 21 May 2026 to 6 January 2027, the special opening of the first-floor apartments for the centenary of the death of Queen Margherita. [17]

Pages linking here

Related articles: Cappella della Sindone, House of Savoy, La Venaria Reale, Piazza Castello, Real Chiesa di San Lorenzo, Residenze sabaude

Sources

  1. Residenze Reali Sabaude
  2. UNESCO World Heritage Centre
  3. MuseoTorino
  4. Treccani – Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
  5. Treccani – Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
  6. Treccani – Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
  7. Treccani – Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
  8. Torino Oggi — 16 March 2022
  9. MuseoTorino
  10. Commissione Nazionale Italiana per l'UNESCO — 24 October 2016
  11. Finestre sull'Arte — 16 February 2019
  12. ANSA — 27 September 2018
  13. Musei Reali Torino
  14. MuseoTorino
  15. Musei Reali Torino
  16. ANSA — 21 July 2025
  17. Musei Reali Torino — 18 February 2026

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