Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / Italy / Turin / Turin Palace Hotel
Turin Palace Hotel
Turin, Italy · Independent · Core Luxury
In 1872 Constantino Kraft read what the new Porta Nuova station would do to Turin, turned a villa across the road into the Grande Albergo Torino, and began collecting signatures: a Maharajah in 1876, the Prince of Wales in 1889, then Empress Elisabeth of Austria and King Leopold II of Belgium in 1892, when the city was a compulsory stop on the sleeping-car run from Brindisi to London. A later owner added the word Palace in 1905. The hotel closed after the 2006 Olympics and came back in May 2015, twenty million euros later, with 127 rooms and the domed Sala Mollino intact.
- 127 rooms
- Opened 1872
- Neighborhood: Centro
- Rooms from 323 sq ft (30 m²)
- Interiors: Patrizia Poli with Margherita Marzot
About Turin Palace Hotel
- The guest book records a Maharajah in 1876 and the Prince of Wales in 1889, when Turin was an obligatory stop on the sleeping-car line running from Brindisi to Lyon, Paris and London.
- Empress Elisabeth of Austria, the Sissi of legend, stayed in 1892, the same year as King Leopold II of Belgium, Princess Clementine and the Duc d'Orleans.
- Natale Ramondetti bought the hotel in 1904, closed it for repairs, and reopened it a year later with the word Palace added to tell it apart from Turin's other grand hotels.
- It stood empty from 2007 to 2015 while the owner, Reale Mutua, spent about twenty million euros on it; the ballroom kept its elliptical dome and the rooms were refurnished with 1920s and 1930s pieces.
- Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden once used the hotel to lay on a Swedish smorgasbord for Piedmontese industrialists.
History
The building began as a villa on what is now Via Paolo Sacchi. In 1872, as Turin grew around the new Porta Nuova railway junction, Constantino Kraft converted it into the Grande Albergo Torino, a fixture for travelling foreign gentry. The trade route to India ran through the city, which was a compulsory stop for the Compagnia dei Vagoni Letto on the Brindisi to Lyon, Paris and London line, and the register filled accordingly: a Maharajah in 1876, the Prince of Wales in 1889, the Crown Prince of Denmark, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, King Leopold II of Belgium, Princess Clementine and the Duc d'Orleans in 1892. Natale Ramondetti bought the hotel in 1904, closed it for repairs and reopened it a year later with Palace added to the name. It filled up with seventeenth-century mirrors, console tables, Chinese vases and silk watercolours until it read more as a patrician residence than a hotel. A ballroom, an extra storey and a careful refurbishment completed in 1987 followed.
The hotel closed in 2007, after the Turin Winter Olympics, and stayed dark for seven years while its owner, the insurance group Reale Mutua, spent around twenty million euros on a full restoration by Studio Artecna. It reopened on 10 May 2015, in time for the exposition of the Shroud, with 127 rooms, the aulic main staircase and the elliptical dome of the Sala Mollino preserved and the interiors reinterpreted by Patrizia Poli with Margherita Marzot in 1920s and 1930s register. The Marzot family, already running the Hotel Spadari al Duomo and the Gran Duca di York in Milan, took over operations, and the house added a spa with a pool, the Le Petites Madeleines bistro and a rooftop terrace looking to the Alps. Later guests have included Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, the Rolling Stones, Louis Armstrong, Maria Callas, David Bowie, Sting and Madonna.
The setting
Via Sacchi runs down the western flank of Porta Nuova station, so the platforms are a few steps from the door and the arcaded stretch of the street was rebuilt in the same years as the hotel's own restoration. Turin's grid takes you from here into Piazza San Carlo and the porticoes of Via Roma in about ten minutes, with the Egyptian Museum, Palazzo Madama and the Mole Antonelliana beyond. The station end of the city is also the traditional home of the vermouth houses and historic cafes that made Turin the capital of Italian aperitivo, and the rooftop looks straight over the roofs to the Alps.
Restaurants and bars
- Les Petites Madeleines — Restaurant · Creative dishes and recipes from the Piedmont tradition
Experiences
- Exclusive dining room use at Les Petites Madeleines — Exclusive use of the restaurant dining room for dinners for up to 40 people, with creative dishes or recipes from the Piedmont tradition.
Amenities
- Terrace with covered and open-air areas and view of Turin, the hill and the Alps
- Venue for business meetings, corporate events, conferences and special events
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