Palazzo Carignano is a historical building in the centre of
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...
, Italy, which houses the Museum of the Risorgimento. It was a private residence of the Princes of Carignano, after whom it is named. Its rounded façade is different from other façades of the same structure. It is located on the ''Via Accademia delle Scienze''.
In 1997, it was placed on the
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage Site list along with 13 other
residences of the House of Savoy
The Residences of the Royal House of Savoy are a group of buildings in Turin and the Metropolitan City of Turin, in Piedmont ( northern Italy). It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list in 1997.
History
The House of Savoy is an ancien ...
Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano
Thomas Francis of Savoy, 1st Prince of Carignano (; ; 21 December 1596 – 22 January 1656) was an Italian military commander and the founder of the Carignano branch of the House of Savoy, which reigned as kings of Piedmont-Sardinia from 1831 ...
and his French wife Marie de Bourbon. The Prince commissioned architect Guarino Guarini to design a suitable residence for his home and the cadet house of the reigning House of Savoy.
Guarini designed the structure in the shape of a square, with a straight and restrained east façade and an elliptical façade on the west. Guarini also added a forecourt at the center of the palace. Construction began in 1679, when the Prince was 51 years old.
The decorations over the windows of the piano nobile recall the campaign of the Carignano family with Carignan-Salières Regiment against the
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
in 1667. The interior has always been described as lavish and has splendid frescoes and stucco decorations.
Among the frescoes are some by
Stefano Legnani
Stefano Maria Legnani also known as "Legnanino" (Milan, 6 April 1661 – Milan, 4 May 1713) was an Italian painter of the late Baroque period, active mainly in Milan.Baroque style, has an elliptical main façade. This façade represents the only example of civic architecture making use of the undulating 'concave – convex – concave' rhythm established by Francesco Borromini in the church of
S. Carlo alle Quattro Fontane
The church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (Saint Charles at the Four Fountains), also called , is a Roman Catholic church in Rome, Italy. The church was designed by the architect Francesco Borromini and it was his first independent commission. ...
Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Carignano
Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, 6th Prince of Carignano (24 October 1770 – 16 August 1800) was a Prince of Savoy and later the Prince of Carignano between 1780 and 1800, and the paternal grandfather of Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of a u ...
was born there in 1770. It was also the birthplace of the first King of Italy,
Victor Emmanuel II
Victor Emmanuel II ( it, Vittorio Emanuele II; full name: ''Vittorio Emanuele Maria Alberto Eugenio Ferdinando Tommaso di Savoia''; 14 March 1820 – 9 January 1878) was King of Sardinia from 1849 until 17 March 1861, when he assumed the title o ...
in 1820.
From 1848 to 1861 the palace was used as the House of Deputies of the Subalpine Parliament. In 1861, with the creation of the parliament of the newly unified Kingdom of Italy, the room was not large enough to host the House of Deputies, which was moved elsewhere.
See also
*
List of Baroque residences
This is a list of Baroque architecture, Baroque palaces and Residenz, residences built in the late 17th and 18th centuries. Baroque architecture is a building style of the Baroque, Baroque era, begun in late 16th-century Italy and spread in Europe ...