Italy · Piemonte · Turin
Porta Palazzo, Turin — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Market stalls cover Piazza della Repubblica. Porta Palazzo is a district of Turin around Europe's largest open-air market, one of the five parts of Aurora.
About Porta Palazzo
Where to stay in Porta Palazzo
The right area depends on your trip — here's what each neighbourhood is best for.
The square sets the hours. Rooms on Piazza della Repubblica open onto the stalls, and the trade starts long before breakfast. If you want the market at the door, that is the address; if you want to sleep through it, take Corso Giulio Cesare north instead.
The south edge is another proposition. Corso Regina Margherita marks the line with Centro, so a room on it puts the Palatine Towers and Turin Cathedral within a few minutes on foot, across the road and outside this quarter.
About Porta Palazzo
What are the main landmarks in Porta Palazzo?
The market is the monument here. Four covered pavilions once stood on Piazza della Repubblica beside the open-air rows, and the oldest survivor is the Tettoia dell'Orologio, a clock-roofed shed of 1916. The clothing hall of 1963 came down in 1998; the PalaFuksas replaced it by 2005 and has held the Mercato Centrale since 2019.
Everything else people come for is across Corso Regina Margherita. The Palatine Towers, Turin Cathedral and the Royal Palace of Turin stand two to five hundred metres south, over in the Quadrilatero and Centro, and Museo Egizio is nearly a kilometre off.
What is the history of Porta Palazzo?
The name predates the square. It comes from the Roman north gate of the castrum, the Porta Principalis dextera, later called Palatina, from which the cardo maximus ran south into the town. Vittorio Amedeo II put Filippo Juvarra to work on the open ground outside the walls in 1729.
Gaetano Lombardi added the porticoed wings from 1819, the octagon of Piazza della Repubblica was settled between 1825 and 1830, and the work finished in 1837. Turin's markets moved here afterwards, off the medieval piazzetta delle Erbe and piazzetta del Pane. Corso Regina Margherita carried other names before the queen's, which it took in 1926.
Where is Porta Palazzo?
Corso Regina Margherita divides Porta Palazzo from Centro, Corso Giulio Cesare from Borgo Dora, Corso Regio Parco from Vanchiglietta. The Dora Riparia caps the north.
Good for
More areas in Turin
Updated September 2026