Palazzo Madama

Few buildings anywhere compress as much history into one footprint as Palazzo Madama. The site started out as one of the four gates of Augusta Taurinorum, the Roman colony that became Turin, before the Acaja family fortified it into a proper medieval castle in the 1270s, complete with corner towers that still stand today. Centuries later it became the residence of two royal regents who each held the title Madama Reale — Christine of France and, after her, Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours — and it's from them that the palace takes its name.

In 1718, architect Filippo Juvarra was commissioned to modernize the aging castle, and rather than rebuild it wholesale, he grafted a dazzling white Baroque facade and a grand staircase onto its front, facing what is now Piazza Castello. He left the medieval towers at the rear completely untouched, so that the same building presents two entirely different faces depending which side you approach from — a contrast so stark it's most obvious from above.

Seen from the air, Palazzo Madama looks almost like two separate buildings pressed together: a crisp white 18th-century palace front and a squat, round-towered medieval fortress behind it, joined at the seam with no attempt to disguise the difference. That wasn't an oversight — Juvarra's brief was to give the castle a facade fit for the piazza it faced, and the rear, out of public view, simply didn't need one.

Inside, the Museum of Civic Art of Ancient Art holds more than 70,000 pieces spanning from the early Middle Ages to the Baroque, ranging from illuminated manuscripts and ceramics to paintings and decorative arts, making the collection nearly as layered as the building that houses it. A climb up the medieval tower rewards visitors with a rare elevated view straight down Piazza Castello.

Unlike most museums in Turin, which typically close on Mondays, Palazzo Madama closes on Tuesdays instead — worth double-checking before you plan a route around the city's museums for the week. It stands right at the head of Piazza Castello, in the historic heart of Turin, so it's easy to combine with a stop at the nearby Royal Palace.

Give yourself enough time to take in both the Baroque staircase and facade and the medieval towers at the back, since the contrast between the two is much of what makes a visit here worthwhile.