Palazzo Madama in Turin: tickets, panoramic tower and what to see

What to see at Palazzo Madama: from the Roman gate to Juvarra's staircase

Palazzo Madama is the one building in Turin where two thousand years of history sit literally on top of each other. The two rear towers belong to the Roman Porta Decumana, the eastern gate of Augusta Taurinorum; in the 14th and 15th centuries the Princes of Acaja turned them into a four-towered castle; in the 17th century the two Madame Reali, Christine of France and Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours, made it their residence and gave it its name.

In 1718–21 Filippo Juvarra added the Baroque facade on Piazza Castello and the monumental double staircase, the most photographed piece of the palace, visible from the atrium. From 1848 to 1864 the halls housed the Subalpine Senate and then the first Senate of the Kingdom of Italy; since 1934 the palace has been home to the Museo Civico d'Arte Antica.

Palazzo Madama Turin tickets: prices and options compared

A full-price ticket at the desk costs around €10–12*, reduced for students and over-65s, free for under-18s; during major exhibitions in the Senate Hall the combined ticket rises by a few euros. The ticket office is in the atrium on Piazza Castello and on weekdays there is rarely a queue.

The Tiqets skip-the-line ticket (from €14*) and the GetYourGuide entrance ticket (€13–16*) make sense at weekends, on Italian bank-holiday bridges and when an exhibition is on: you pick a day, get the voucher on your phone and stop depending on desk hours. If you also plan the Royal Palace, Egyptian Museum and Mole during your stay, the Torino+Piemonte Card (€29–65* depending on days) includes Madama and pays for itself from the third museum. Bands marked with an asterisk are observed on partner catalogues and checked regularly: the checkout price prevails.

Opening hours, closing day, how to book and accessibility

The museum closes on Tuesdays; on other days it opens in the morning with last entry about an hour before closing. The best moment is a weekday morning: an empty piano nobile and no wait for the tower. At weekends with an exhibition on, arrive at opening time or book a slot online.

The Tiqets skip-the-line and GetYourGuide ticket are booked for a date; many listings offer free cancellation up to 24 hours before, but read the exact line before paying. The visit is self-guided, with labels in Italian and English. A lift serves the exhibition floors, the tower is stairs only and the medieval garden in the moat has gravel paths.

The Civic Museum of Ancient Art: Antonello da Messina and the collections

The piece worth the ticket on its own is Antonello da Messina's Portrait of a Man, a panel a few centimetres across that holds an entire room: one of the most intense portraits of the Italian 15th century, which reached Turin in the 19th century with the civic collections. Around it hang Piedmontese and Flemish painting and the Gothic sculptures of the ground floor.

The second floor, given over to decorative arts, surprises anyone expecting a picture gallery: glass, ivories, goldsmiths' work, ceramics, textiles and inlaid furniture by Piffetti. The piano nobile keeps the Baroque decoration of the Madame Reali and the Senate Hall, where the Savoy parliament sat between 1848 and 1864 before the capital moved to Florence.

Panoramic tower and medieval garden: the two things most visitors skip

The panoramic tower is the reason Madama beats many more famous museums on a short day: a few minutes of stairs from the top floor and you are above Piazza Castello, with the railings of the Royal Palace, Guarini's dome at San Lorenzo, Via Po running down to the river, the Mole and the Alps behind. Access is included in the ticket but limited to a few people at a time; in strong wind or rain it closes without notice, so go up first.

The medieval garden in the moat, on the Via Po side, reconstructs the vegetable garden, orchard, herb garden and woodland of a 15th-century castle from Savoy inventories; it opens only in fine weather, generally from spring to autumn, with access from the museum. Check the official site for whether it is open when you visit.

Palazzo Madama, the Royal Palace and the Egyptian Museum in one day

Piazza Castello lines up the three seats of Savoy power within a hundred metres: the Royal Palace on the north side, Madama in the middle and, around the corner, the Chapel of the Holy Shroud. The order that works in one day: Royal Museums at opening (3 hours), lunch under the arcades of Via Po, Madama in the early afternoon (1–1.5 hours with the tower) and the Egyptian Museum with a timed ticket in the late afternoon, five minutes' walk away. When to skip it: with half a day and the Egyptian Museum and Mole still unseen, Madama is the first thing to drop; if you have already done the Royal Palace and want a view from above without the Mole's lift, Madama's tower costs a fifth. Our one-day itinerary puts it all in order.

Platforms and how we choose

For Palazzo Madama we check Tiqets first (cheapest skip-the-line slot, clear cancellation), then GetYourGuide if you are also booking tours and day trips on the same app, and Headout as a fallback. We take the Torino+Piemonte Card on Tiqets. The checkout price always prevails; we are not the museum's official site, so confirm hours and closures on the Fondazione Torino Musei pages.