Palazzo Madama | Turin, Italy

[therock]

Palazzo Madama

[therock]

Palazzo Madama condenses the two thousand years of history of Turin. Its history began in the Roman period. The palace was built on the site of one of the four gatehouses of the town, called Praetoria or Decumana. Only the two thirty metres high towers remain, incorporated now to the Baroque façade of the building, towards Via Po.



In the 13th century Guglielmo VII, marquis of Monferrato became the Lord of Turin and built a house-fortress, beside which he opened a new small gatehouse, called Fibellona.
At the beginning of the 15th century the old fortress became a property of the principal Savoy line. Ludovico d'Acaia transformed it into a large castle with two rooms frescoed by Giacomo Jacquerio, now disappeared.
In the 17th and 18th centuries there was a strong artistic impetus with the Royal Ladies Cristina of France, wife of Vittorio Amedeo I and Maria Giovanna Battista of Savoy-Nemours, second wife of Carlo Emanuele II, from whom the palace took its name.
In the first half of the seventeenth century the façade giving onto Via Garibaldi was restored, probably by Ascanio Vittozzi. Madama Cristina began the decoration of the rooms of its apartment between 1638 and 1640.
In 1718 the second Royal Lady, Giovanna Battista di Savoia-Nemours, asked Juvarra to plan a radical enlargement of the palace in order to turn it into one of the most grandiose residences of Europe. The original plan included two very long fronts that had to collect the two sides of the square, but only the splendid front giving to Via Garibaldi was completed. The two flights of the grandiose main stairs start from the hall. These stairs occupy practically the whole lenght of the façade. The most interesting venues (not all of them can be visited unfortunately) are: on the ground floor the Medieval room of the princes of Acaia, on the first floor the apartments of the two Royal Ladies, the room of “the Swiss” (this room housed the Senate of the first Subalpine Parliament and of the Italian Senate until 1864), the room of the Four Seasons, the room of the Royal Madame and the Green Room.
During the French occupation the palace was in danger of being demolished.
In 1883 Alfonso D'Andrade supervised the archaeological excavations and the restoration of the Medieval structures who finished in the 20's. In 1934 it was opened to the public as a "Civico Museo d'Arte Antica" (Town museum of ancient art), still open. Among the most important works it contains paintings by Antonello da Messina, Martino Spanzotti, Defendente Ferrari, Jaquerio and Macrino d'Alba.

[Xumius]

[therock]

Dico, per votare 4 O sei un pezzo di me... o se un gran pezzo di me... !!!!.

[Eletrix]

Come si fa a votare 3 or less o 4?
Per carità il gusto è insindacabile però ci sono molti invidiosoni in giro...passi la parte anteriore che può essere un dejà vu, sufficiente ma il retro è stupendo!!! Cmq originale!

[Kampflamm]

[Phobos]

8.5/10
very ellegant facade;can't say the same about the medieval part.

[DamienK]

8/10

[Raine]

hm 8/10

[Fabio]

8.5/10

the main entrance is awesome, but the back

[marpa]

7,5/10

[Sinjin P.]

8/10

[-Corey-]

8.5/*10

[forvine]

8/10

[LordMarshall]

8/10

[Mosaic]

8.5/10

[clarky]

8.5/10

[delmaule]

8/10

[gutooo]

8,5/10

[LMCA1990]

8/10