Palazzo Madama, Turin: tickets, opening hours and what to see in the castle on Piazza Castello

Two thousand years in one building

Palazzo Madama is Turin’s history in stone. At its base are the remains of the eastern gate of the Roman city; in the Middle Ages the gate became a fortress and then the castle of the princes of Acaja, a branch of the House of Savoy, whose brick towers still stand on the side facing Via Po. The name dates from the seventeenth century, when two “Madame Reali” lived here: Christine of France and, after her, Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours.

It was she who called in Filippo Juvarra, who between 1718 and 1721 built the baroque façade and the grand staircase facing Via Garibaldi and the square. In the nineteenth century the palace housed the Subalpine Senate and then the first Senate of the Kingdom of Italy. Today it is home to the Civic Museum of Ancient Art and part of the UNESCO-listed Residences of the Royal House of Savoy.

What to see

• Juvarra’s staircase: bright and theatrical, one of the finest baroque interiors in Italy. It is worth the visit on its own.
• Antonello da Messina’s Portrait of a Man: a small face with a defiant gaze, and the museum’s emblem.
• The medieval and Renaissance collections: stone and wood sculpture, goldsmiths’ work, illuminated manuscripts and gold-ground paintings in the rooms of the castle.
• The baroque apartments: the rooms of the Madame Reali, with painted ceilings, stucco and furniture.
• The decorative arts: ceramics, porcelain, glass, ivories and textiles on the upper floors.
• The panoramic tower: a 360-degree view over Piazza Castello, the Mole and the hills, with panels that help you pick out the landmarks.
• The medieval garden: laid out in the moat with plants grown as they were in gardens of the period.

Tickets: what makes sense

The official ticket for the permanent collections costs €10, reduced to €8 for visitors aged 19 to 25 or over 65. Under-18s go free, as do visitors with disabilities and their companion. There is also a garden-only ticket at €5 and a combined ticket with the GAM and the MAO, the city’s other two civic museums. Temporary exhibitions are priced separately.

On Tiqets you will find an entry ticket from €14.50. It costs more than the box office, so it makes sense if you want to arrive with the ticket already on your phone or if it includes the current exhibition. With the Torino+Piemonte Card and the Abbonamento Musei pass, entry is free: the Card pays off if you also visit the Egyptian Museum, the Mole or the Royal Museums in the same few days.

Opening hours and the best time to go

The museum is open every day except Tuesday, from 10am to 6pm; the ticket office closes an hour earlier. On 24 and 31 December it usually closes in the early afternoon and it is closed on Christmas Day, so check the museum’s website over the holidays.

A practical tip: on Mondays the Reggia di Venaria and the Lavazza Museum are closed and the Egyptian Museum shuts at 2 pm, while Palazzo Madama is open all day. If you are in town on a Monday, it is the ideal visit. On weekdays the museum is rarely crowded; at weekends with a major exhibition on, go at opening time.

Getting there

Palazzo Madama stands in the middle of Piazza Castello, the heart of the city, so you cannot miss it. From Porta Nuova station it is a fifteen-minute walk along Via Roma; from Porta Susa allow about twenty minutes along Via Garibaldi, the long pedestrian street that ends right in front of Juvarra’s façade. Metro line M1 does not reach the square, but several GTT tram and bus lines stop nearby.

Much of the centre is a ZTL, a restricted-access zone for cars, so if you are driving, leave the car in a multi-storey car park. For all the options, read our guide to getting around Turin.

Accessibility and families

The main entrance is accessible, and there is a lift with braille buttons plus a stair lift to reach the Sala di Staffarda. The panoramic tower can also be reached by lift as an alternative to the spiral staircase. The museum lends wheelchairs free of charge, and the garden has a path designed with visually impaired visitors in mind.

For families it is one of the best-value museums in the city, because under-18s go free. The climb up the tower and the garden in the moat are what children remember most; with little ones, keep the visit under an hour and a half.

What to pair it with

Palazzo Madama combines easily with almost everything in the centre. Across the square are the Royal Museums, with the Royal Palace and the Chapel of the Holy Shroud; five minutes away is the Egyptian Museum, and just beyond is the Cathedral, where a copy of the Shroud is on view. A sensible plan for one day is the Egyptian Museum in the morning and Palazzo Madama in the afternoon: two visits of different weight that do not tread on each other’s toes.

Afterwards, take a break under the arcades of the square, home to some of the city’s historic cafés, or head down Via Po towards the river and the Mole Antonelliana, about ten minutes’ walk away.