The Devil’s door in Turin

In Turin, in Via Vittorio Alfieri, stands an old building, now hosting a Bank. The building has a beautiful huge door of carved dark hardwood.
Palazzo Trucchi di Levaldigi, so you call the building, is an imposing building erected in 1673 by the minister of finance of the House of Savoy, it was designed by Amedeo di Castellamonte.
The door is decorated with flowers, angels, fruit, but what can not be unnoticed is the clapper in the center of the door, shiny, a smiling a Devil.
All Turin, known this place as the Devil’s door.
It was once also home to the Royal Factory of the Tarot, and the paper number 15, the Devil, goes back to the figure of the clapper.

The building is not far from where I live, so I waited for a quiet Sunday with no traffic, to capture this beautiful work of art with my camera.

Palazzo Trucchi di Levaldigi, along with numerous others buildings, all very majestic, was built in few years, arousing the suspicion among the population regarding the origin of so much money. The minister Trucchi di Levaldigi played them a sort of joke mounting the gate during the night.
Upon awakening, the curious thought that only the Devil could have done such a thing.

In 1790 the palace belonged to Maria Carolina di Savoia. It was prepared a costume party during the carnival, with an orchestra, dancers and various artists.
At the end of the room was shown a hellish scene, the dancers were dancing in the flames, symbolizing the souls of the damned.
During the festival was the murder of a dancer, stabbed to death.
The assumptions were many, however, the culprit was never identified, nor the weapon was never found.

Another strange fact dates back to French rule in 1917, the palace was occupied by military. Major Du Perril Melchiorre, disappeared mysteriously in the palace.
About twenty years after, some construction workers during the work in the palace, found a skeleton of a man inside a wall, he had been buried standing up.

Between reality and legend is still a beautiful artifact, so that USA Today, in a service dedicated to Turin published some pictures.

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