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History of Palazzo Madama |
"The new elective Senate is an unprecedented institution in the
century-long history of our young Republic, for it comes into being
not at the behest of a high authority of state but in response
to
the people's will to directly reflect the political feelings of the
ation". 8 May 1948. Ivanoe Bonomi pronounced these words at the
beginning of the new Parliament when he took office as President of
the first republican Senate. The ceremony was all the more
remarkable because it marked a historical coincidence with a
similar
event that had taken place exactly one hundred years earlier; the
joint sitting (of Chamber and Senate) that had inaugurated the
Parliament of Piedmont in Turin, in a building of the same name:
Palazzo Madama.
The psychological history of a country is no less influential than
the history of events and persons. In Italy's psychological
history, the name "Palazzo Madama" itself has a special meaning,
for a Palazzo Madama has housed the Senate in Turin, capital of
Piedmont, and
the Senate in Rome, capital city of unified Italy.
In the eyes of many, the histories of the two women who gave their
names to the two buildings gradually merged into one, and many went
as far as believing that the "Madams" of Turin and Rome were one
and the same.
In fact, there were two Madamas, and each represented a different
era and a very different historical context. Margaret of Austria -
the Roman Madama - lived when the Renaissance was at its highest
and the Medici family and their relations with the papacy and the
empire at their strongest.
Christine of France - the Madama of Turin - represented a totally
different historical period, about one hundred years later, when
the Duchy of Savoy had very close ties with France.
The two women have nothing more in common than the nickname of
madama, and their being related to the Medici family. | |
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