The statue was commissioned on the 2nd June 1828. It portrays Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy, the first Savoian king to reign over the city. It substituted the inscription that was located on one of the city’s doors, and that had been destroyed by the French at the end of the 1700’s. The king had acquired the city in 1734 after a short siege, and he had given a crucial contribution to its well-being by creating the socalled Cunetta, a modern gutter that substituted the swampy moats that the Spanish had dug to protect the bulwarks. The statue is a work by renowned Milanese sculptor Pompeo Marchesi (1789 – 1858). The king is wearing a royal outfit, and in his left hand is holding the decree with which he decided the creation of the Cunetta.