Its history begins in the Roman age, to which date back, as remains of the praetorian door, the two towers later conglobed in the baroque façade of the building.
William VII, marquis of Monferrato in the 13th century, annexed a house-fort; passed to the Savoy, the castle was enlarged under Ludovico of Acaia, lord of Turin in the 15th century, with the adding of the back front.
Palazzo Madama
Later lost the defensive function, the embellishing works started and they transformed it into a palace for the ducal family.
There was a great artistic impulse with the "royal madams" Christine of France, wife of Vittorio Amedeo I, regent for the son since 1637, and Maria Giovanna Battista of Savoy-Nemoirs, second wife of Carlo Emanuele II, regent from 1675, and from them the palace took its name.
From the ambitious project presented by Filippo Juvarra, only the new façade was realised (1718-1721), great in the scansion of the superior order of pilasters and fluted Corinthian pillars and wide large windows; work of Giovanni Baratta are the relieves with military trophies, the vases and the statues of the balustrade.
From the hall start the two staircases, with superior vestibule, extraordinary creation of the architect from Messina.
In 1799 Palazzo Madama was occupied by a revolutionary government and in 1801 the gallery that united it to the Palazzo Reale was destroyed. It was then seat of the Regia Pinacoteca from 1834 until 1865, of the Astronomic Observatory (demolished in 1920), of the sub alpine and then Italian Senate (1848 – 1864) and of the Court of Cassation, until the selling in 1924 of the first floor to the Municipality, which decide to move in there in 1934 the Museo Civico di Arte Antica, reopened on 16 December 2006, after a long period of restorations.
Palaces 
