Baroque Turin
For centuries Turin lingered on the edge of the Ancient Roman “checkerboard” layout legacy (even today a distinguishing feature of the city centre) and it entered a golden age in the 1600s, thanks to the commitment of the Savoia family, who commissioned the greatest architects of the time to enhance their capital. Great masters arrived in Turin: Ascanio Vitozzi, Amedeo and Carlo di Castellamonte, Guarino Guarini and Filippo Juvarra. The age of Baroque gave the city some of its greatest magnificence, for instance the churches: the Cathedral of San Giovanni Battista and Duomo of Turin, the church of San Lorenzo, the Consolata Sanctuary. Baroque can also be pinpointed as the style used for several of the most famous streets and squares in the old centre: Via Po, Piazza Castello, Piazza San Carlo.
The heart of the Torinese baroque system is the “Corona delle Delizie”: a circuit of 14 Royal Residences – urban, suburban and some located in the rest of Piedmont – declared “Patrimonio dell’Umanità” in 1997.
In town we should remember: Palazzo Reale, the Savoia residence until 1865, Palazzo Madama, the home of the Museo di Arte Antica and Palazzo Carignano, location of the Subalpine Parliament and first national Parliament, following the Unification of Italy.
Out of town: the Stupinigi Hunting Lodge or Palazzina di Caccia, the palace at Venaria Reale and Rivoli Castle, the latter designed by Juvarra in the 1700s, as a homage to Versailles, and connected by a 20-kilometre direct road to the Basilica of Superga, also by this architect from Messina.
