The ancient castle, home to several noble families, was purchased by Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia.
The castle owes its present form to Madama Reale, the young Maria Cristina of Bourbon-France, wife of Vittorio Amedeo of Savoy.

With a four corner towers, a large courtyard with a marble floor with ceilings that are typically Alpine, it reflects the taste of the Senate. The work lasted from 1633 to 1660 on draft of Carlo and Amedeo di Castellamonte but Madama lived there since 1630.

The rooms on the first floor preserve important seventeenth-century frescoes and stucco decorations, white or gold.  The apartment consists of the central hall and the rooms, decorated by Isidoro Bianchi and his sons Francesco and Pompeo.

An area of 27,000 square feet to the left of the castle is occupied by the Botanical Garden, founded by Vittorio Amedeo II in 1729. Lapsed since the death of Christine of France, the residence was later reused: as a veterinary school during the French barracks in 1824, as a school of application for engineers by 1859 and then as the Faculty of Architecture at the Politecnico of Torino.