EGYPTIAN MUSEUM, Palace

Before you begin your tour of the Egyptian Museum's collections, I suggest observing the magnificent Baroque building that houses it.

The museum is housed in the Academy of Sciences Palace, which was built in the second half of the 1600s by one of the most creative and innovative architects of Piedmont-style Baroque, Guarino Guarini. He is also responsible for other jewels including the Chapel of the Shroud of Turin in the Cathedral, the Church of San Lorenzo, and Carignano Palace.

The great and austere brick building you stand before was built as a college run by Jesuits and reserved for the descendants of the Piedmontese aristocracy. It has a horseshoe-shaped form and covers more than 60 thousand square meters. In the original design, the architect had even planned for a direct link to Piazza Castello through a system of underground passages, which however were never created....