Palazzo Madama – Museo Civico d'Arte Antica

Palazzo Madama stands in the very centre of Piazza Castello and tells the whole story of Turin in a single building: a Roman gate at its core, a medieval castle behind, and a magnificent Baroque facade and grand staircase added by Filippo Juvarra in the early eighteenth century for the royal widow Maria Giovanna Battista of Savoy-Nemours, whose residence here gave the palace its name. Today it houses the Museo Civico d'Arte Antica, Turin's civic museum of ancient art, whose collection spans more than ten centuries. The route runs from the atmospheric medieval stone hall and lapidary on the ground floor, through the gilded piano nobile with its furnishings, ceramics and majolica, up to galleries of paintings, gold work, sculpture and the celebrated Portrait of a Man by Antonello da Messina, one of the masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance. The contrast between Juvarra's luminous marble staircase and the brooding medieval interiors is itself a highlight, and the panoramic tower can be climbed for rooftop views over Piazza Castello and the surrounding city. A visit usually takes an hour and a half to two hours. The museum is quietest on weekday afternoons and busier at weekends and on the free first Sunday of the month. Photography without flash is generally allowed. Beautifully positioned among the royal palaces of the Savoy, Palazzo Madama sits directly opposite the Palazzo Reale and a short walk from the cathedral and the Mole Antonelliana, making it a convenient and rewarding stop in any tour of central Turin and a vivid introduction to the layered history of the Piedmont capital.