Palazzo Trucchi di Levaldigi – The Devil’s Door

With its imposing architecture and the impenetrable aura that surrounds it, Palazzo Trucchi di Levaldigi represents the perfect setting for a Gothic novel. The palace is an ancient building in Turin, built between 1673 and 1677 by the Count and architect Amedeo di Castellamonte for the powerful Finance Minister Giovanni Battista Trucchi Count of Levaldigi, which stands on a corner lot located between the current Alfieri and XX Settembre streets.

A closer look at its entrance will allow to catch the peculiarity of the palace door. Palazzo Trucchi di Levaldigi is in fact known as the palace of the “Devil’s Door”, because of the presence on the door of a golden woodpecker with the features of a sneering devil. Fans of esotericism connect the presence of the Devil’s Gate with the fact that, in the seventeenth century, the palace housed the Tarot Factory; they thus count it as one of the places most linked to black magic in Turin.

What is certain is that the palace was the scene of some terrible facts of crime.
In fact, it is said that on a dancing night in 1790, a dancer was murdered with a stiletto, without ever discovering either the culprit or the motive. A violent thunderstorm and a thunderous crash followed, smashing the windows and allowing the icy wind to put the guests to flight.
In 1797, however, the officer Du Perril disappeared here. The soldier had to leave for a mission and the escort was waiting for him at the exit. He disappeared without a trace. Twenty years later some masons knocked down a wall and found his skeleton in the cavity.
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