Its advantages included an open and sunny position, in addition to being close to other buildings where the court met.

[5] Thus the old Bishop's Palace became the seat of power and was greatly expanded by Emmanuel Philibert to house his ever-growing collection of art, animals, marbles, and furniture.

His son, the future Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy (1587–1637), entered into a prestigious marriage when he married the French Princess Christine Marie of France.

Christine Marie had the court moved from the ducal palace in Turin to the Castello del Valentino, which at that time, was on the outskirts of the small capital.

From 1660 to 1663, Bartolomeo Caravoglia worked on the new decoration of the Royal Palace, where he produced some paintings for the Sala delle Principesse, based on an iconographic plan conceived by Emanuele Tesauro to celebrate the marriages of members of the House of Savoy to foreign consorts.

The palace was overshadowed by the Stupinigi building later on, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia married Maria Adelaide of Austria.

In 1946, the palace was claimed by the Italian Republic and turned into a "Museum of the Life and Works of the House of Savoy".

The royal gates of the palace have a golden Medusa symbol embossed on them, in order to fend off intruders.