At the beginning of the first century BC, the site of the palace was occupied by a gate in the Roman walls from which the of (the ancient name of Turin) departed. Two of the towers, although restored, still testify to this original nucleus. After the fall of the
Western Roman Empire, the gate was used as a fortified stronghold in the defences of the city. Later the building became a possession of the Savoia-Acaja, a secondary branch of the
House of Savoy; in the early 14th century, they enlarged it into a
castle. A century later Ludovico of Acaja rebuilt it in square shape, with an inner court and a
portico, and four cylindrical towers at each corner. The form of this edifice is still clearly recognisable from the back section of the palace. After the extinction of the Acajas, the edifice became a residence for guests of the
House of Savoy. In 1637 the regent for Duke
Charles Emmanuel II,
Christine of France (aunt of
Louis XIV), chose it as her personal residence. She commissioned the covering of the court and a revamping of the inner apartments. Sixty years later another regent,
Marie Jeanne of Savoy, who was known as , lived in the palace. She conferred upon it definitively the nickname of (Italian for
Madame). She invited many artists to renovate the building which the duchess wanted to turn into a sumptuous royal palace. The artist
Domenico Guidobono became the undisputed protagonist of the decorations of the halls on the first floor of Palazzo Madama, known as the Guidobono halls – the Madama Reale’s Chamber, the Chinese Cabinet, and the Southern Veranda. The duchess also asked architect
Filippo Juvarra to design a new Baroque palace in white stone, which he did in 1716, but the works halted in 1721 after only the front section had been completed. Later the palace had various uses, and housed the headquarters of the provisional French government during the
Napoleonic Wars. In the 19th century King
Charles Albert selected it as seat of the , the royal art gallery called after 1933
Galleria Sabauda, and, later, of the
Subalpine Senate (the Parliament of the
Kingdom of Sardinia) and of the High Court. Since 1934 it has housed the
City Museum of Ancient Art. Overlooking
Piazza Castello, the section built by Juvarra (
illustration, right) constitutes today a scenographic façade a single bay deep, screening the rear part of the edifice, which has remained unchanged (
illustration, above right). On the exterior, Juvarra expressed what was intended as a magnificent architectural preamble to an edifice that was never built, as a high-ceilinged with arch-headed windows, which is linked to a
mezzanine above it by a colossal row of pilasters of the
composite order. Each pilaster stands on a sturdy and formal
fielded channel-rusticated base against the ashlar masonry of the ground floor. The central three bays are emphasised by the bolder relief offered by full columns attached to the façade, which is returned inward behind them to afford a vast glass-fronted central interior space like a glazed
loggia. Their prominence is emphasised by the tall socles on which they stand, carved with trophies of arms in relief. In the flanking triple bays, each central bay is broken slightly forwards, given its window a deeper, more shadowed reveal within the depth of the wall; its two outer giant pilasters overlap the main order as if that continued behind them. On either side the bays' windows are set together within a slightly recessed panel, thus there are three layered planes to the façade. The
dentiled cornice supported on bold
consoles in the frieze breaks forward over the central columns and subtly over the central bays of the flanking sections as well. A conforming
balustrade decorated with vases and statues in white marble surmounts the façade. On 25 January 2022, the semi-final allocation draw and host city handover for the
Eurovision Song Contest 2022 was set and took place at the palace. ==Museum of Ancient Art==