Turin top attractions: the Royal Palace

A royal city needs a royal palace: and the Royal Palace is a must see within the Turin top attractions.

Turin top attractions: Palazzo Reale, a Royal Palace for two kingdoms

The Royal Palace started his “career” as a bishopric in the XVI Century, then the Savoy family took possession of it.

The palace became the seat of the duchy of Savoy with Emmanuel Philibert, but it was upgraded and enlarged when Emmanuel Philibert’s grandson married in 1619 in Paris the French Princess Christine Marie of France.

The sister of Louis XIII came to live in Turin and she definitely gave to the Palazzo Reale a boost of French grandeur…

The enlargement of the building continued with Christine Marie’s sons and grandson: the Daniel Gallery was created (the name is after Daniel Setier, the Baroque Wien – born painter, the author of the frescoes of the gallery) and the Chapel of the Holy Shroud.

In 1713 the Dukes of Savoy became Kings of Sicily. Sicily is quite far from Turin, so few years later they “swapped” Sicily for Sardinia: the Kingdom of Piedmont and Sardinia – the “father” of the Kingdom of Italy – was born and the Palazzo was finally Reale: the Royal Palace. Since 1946 the Royal Palace is the museum of the Life and Works of the House of Savoy.

Turin top attractions: the Royal Palace now

The Palazzo Reale shines for its tapestries collection, or the Chinese study room – along with the Carlo Emanuele II’s Chinese porcelains collection.

The Royal Palace is very well preserved, with lots of original furnitures as well. The garden of the Palace is a tiny yet beautiful jewel.

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