In this initial period of its history, which dates back to the two towers and then merged into the Baroque facade of the building, there was a city gate called Porta Fibellona on the side exposed to the river Po, which was later fortified by the Marquis William VII of Montferrat in the thirteenth century, who leaned against a fortified house.

In '400 the castle was enlarged by the addition of the rear front under Louis of Achaia, lord of Turin. Passed to the Savoy, it became a symbol of power for Turin.

Lost after the defensive, the works of landscaping that transformed it into a palace for the ducal family later began. Its name is due to the interventions of landscaping under the regency of two Madame Royal Cristina of France, wife of Vittorio Amedeo I, regent for her son since 1637, and Maria Giovanna Battista of Savoy-Nemours, second wife of Carlo Emanuele II, regent from 1675.

The magnificent white stone facade is the work of Philip Messina Juvarra, the architect of the Savoy, and it was performed between 1718 and 1721. The lobby is full of light entering from the three sides with windows and it has four central columns supporting the ceiling of the monumental staircase that leads upstairs.

During the Napoleonic period the tunnel that connected to the Royal Palace was destroyed. Later it began the seat of the Royal Picture Gallery, exactly from 1832 to 1865, the Astronomical Observatory (demolished in 1920), and then the sub-alpine Italian Senate until the sale in 1924 of the first floor City Hall, which in 1934 decided to move here the Museum of Ancient Art.