The story of this place
This ornate Baroque palace in Turin was the cradle of the Italian nation. Victor Emmanuel II, who would become Italy's first king, was born here in 1820. From 1848 it housed the parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia, and on 17 March 1861 that assembly proclaimed the Kingdom of Italy, uniting the peninsula for the first time since antiquity under the House of Savoy. Turin served as the new nation's first capital from 1861 to 1865. The original curved parliamentary chamber survives, along with a purpose-built (but never used) larger hall, as Turin lost the capital to Florence and then Rome. The palace now houses the Museum of the Risorgimento, telling the story of Italian unification.