Palazzo Carignano

Palazzo Carignano is one of the masterpieces of European Baroque architecture and a building of profound importance in the history of Italy, standing in central Turin between Piazza Carignano and Piazza Carlo Alberto. Designed by the brilliant priest-architect Guarino Guarini and built from 1679 for the Carignano branch of the House of Savoy, its most famous feature is the extraordinary undulating brick facade, whose convex and concave curves and elaborate terracotta detailing make it unlike almost any other palace front in Italy. The building's significance goes far beyond architecture: it was the birthplace in 1820 of Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of a united Italy, and it became the seat of the Subalpine Parliament and then of the first Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy after unification in 1861. Today it houses the Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano, the national museum of the movement for Italian unification, the largest and most authoritative museum of its kind. Visitors move through richly decorated rooms displaying paintings, documents, flags, weapons and personal relics that trace the Risorgimento from the Napoleonic era to unification, and the emotional high point is the preserved chamber of the Subalpine Parliament itself, the very room where the deputies who built modern Italy debated. A visit typically takes around an hour and a half to two hours. The museum is quieter on weekday afternoons and busier at weekends and around national holidays. Photography without flash is generally permitted. Set a short walk from Piazza Castello and the other royal sights, Palazzo Carignano combines Guarini's architectural genius with the founding story of the Italian nation, making it one of the most rewarding and meaningful stops in Turin.