Palazzo Solaro del Borgo, Rococo palace on Piazza San Carlo, Turin, Italy

Palazzo Solaro del Borgo stands at Piazza San Carlo 183. Its facade on the piazza is the Baroque work of Carlo di Castellamonte; the two wings toward the courtyard and Via Lagrange, added by Benedetto Alfieri from 1753, hold galleries, a library and state apartments. Inside are an octagonal salon with gilded stuccoes by Francesco Ladatte, three frescoes by Giovanni Antonio Molineri, flowers by Michele Antonio Rapous and a grand staircase with stuccoes by Giovanni Battista Bernero.

Carlo di Castellamonte drew up the original project in 1640, and the palace was built between 1644 and 1656 for the Lorraine marquis Francesco Havard de Senantes, initially with only three apartments. In 1753 the Isnardi di Caraglio family had Benedetto Alfieri enlarge it with new state apartments, salons, galleries and a grand staircase. The Accademia Filarmonica bought it in 1838 and added the Odeo concert hall, inaugurated on 19 February 1841 in the presence of King Carlo Alberto.

The palace's name recalls two families: the Isnardi di Caraglio, who acquired it through the 1753 marriage of Angelo Carlo Maurizio Isnardi and Cristina Carlotta Havart de Senantes, and the Solaro del Borgo, who bought it in 1782. In 1771 its apartments hosted the wedding celebrations of Maria Giuseppina of Savoy and the future Louis XVIII of France, given by the resident French ambassador.

The palace stands at Piazza San Carlo 183, not on Via Roma; its facade faces the square, while Benedetto Alfieri's two wings extend toward the courtyard and Via Lagrange. Look for the three cannonballs embedded in the facade, left from the siege of Turin in 1706.

Three cannonballs remain embedded in the facade on Piazza San Carlo, a reminder of the 1706 siege of Turin; the palace was hit again by the 1942 and 1943 bombings, which destroyed Bernardino Galliari's 1758 painted vault over the grand staircase.