Castello di Racconigi

Racconigi Castle, with its imposing architecture and English-style grounds covering almost 200 hectares of land, was the favourite holiday destination of King Carlo Alberto of Savoy and his family.
The castle had been intended for recreation and hunting since the middle of the 17th century, when it became the property of the cadet branch of the Savoy-Carignano family. Commissioned by Prince Emanuele Filiberto, from 1676 the famous architect Guarino Guarini transformed the old medieval building into a modern residence of delights. From this first phase, the northern façade, which opens onto the park, is still visible today. The project was completed in the mid-18th century by Giovanni Battista Borra, to whom we owe the monumental neoclassical entrance façade on the south side and the Hercules and Diana Rooms, whose rich stucco decorations celebrate the virtues of the princes and princesses of the House of Savoy.
By virtue of his membership of the Savoy-Carignano family line, Carlo Alberto was bound by emotional ties to the residence at Racconigi. In 1832, following his accession to the throne of Sardinia, he commissioned the royal architect Ernesto Melano to modernise the building, to which two side wings were added. Pelagio Palagi, who knew how to interpret the cultural climate promoted by the king more than any other artist, was called in for the interior redesign. It is to Palagi that we owe the plans for redecoration of the rooms in accordance with a new and eclectic taste. The fascination for exoticism and distant worlds, which had become established with the fashion for Chinese cabinets, was updated according to Etruscan, Greek and Roman models, also driven by the rediscovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum and the necropolises of ancient Etruria. For the greenhouses and the farm in the grounds, Palagi used the neo-Gothic style that best suited the romantic garden designed by the Prussian landscape architect Xavier Kurten.
After the capital of the Kingdom of Italy was relocated from Turin to Rome (1871), the presence of the monarchs declined until the early 20th century, when King Vittorio Emanuele III once again chose Racconigi as his holiday destination, promoting campaigns for technological and decorative modernisation.
Regularly frequented by Umberto II until World War II, the residence was purchased by the Italian State in 1980.
Today, the interiors offer visitors an intimate, close-up view of the daily and private life of the royal family: from the bedrooms, kitchens and powder rooms to the billiard room and dining room, and the extraordinary Etruscan office, where the king received ministers and ambassadors. In addition to the stunning interiors, the sprawling grounds are one of the most significant examples in Europe of Romanticism’s sensitivity to nature and the landscape, with woods populated by trees that are hundreds of years old concealing paths and areas of water.