Thomas I of Savoy built the first structure at Moncalieri around 1100, a fortress on a hill guarding the main southern approach to Turin. In the mid-fifteenth century Yolanda of Valois, wife of Duke Amadeus IX, converted it into a pleasure residence. The architect Carlo di Castellamonte later greatly enlarged it and, with other local artists, redesigned its interiors. It is part of the UNESCO-listed Residences of the Royal House of Savoy.
The plan is horseshoe-shaped, opening to the south, with four massive square towers at the corners and five-floor side wings of brick with buttresses. Two small cylindrical towers on the southern facade are the last surviving parts of the fifteenth-century castle.
Victor Amadeus III died here in 1796, and in 1849 Victor Emmanuel II signed the Proclamation of Moncalieri here. A fire damaged one tower in 2008. The Carabinieri have been based here since 1921.
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