Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi
A hunting lodge for a European Court
The Rococo jewel
The Stupinigi Hunting Lodge is an architectural jewel nestled in the Turinese countryside, just 10 km from Turin's Piazza Castello, framed by the breathtaking panorama of the Alps. Considered to be the masterpiece of architect Filippo Juvarra - who made it an international model for leisure estates - and commissioned by Victor Amadeus II for the amusements of the Savoy court, it was built in 1729 in the middle of a vast hunting reserve, establishing a privileged relationship with the surrounding environment.
The contruction
Rational land management emerges in the design of a true urban agglomeration serving the Hunting Lodge, complete with stables, warehouses, farmsteads, kennels and dwellings. From 1754, the complex became easily accessible from the capital via a tree-lined road.
For the main building, Juvarra conceived a structure in the form of a St Andrew's cross in whose arms, projected towards the gardens, the apartments for the royal family were located. At the centre of the cross, the pivot of the geometric scheme on which the floor plan is based, stands the large elliptical hall conceived as a spectacular festive space. Entirely painted in mock architectural style by the Bolognese quadraturists Domenico and Giuseppe Valeriani, the salon engages the spectator in a scenographic dialogue between painting, sculpture and architecture, amalgamated by the light entering through the large windows. The theme of hunting, chosen for the centrepiece of the salon with the Apotheosis of Diana, is, together with that of nature, the leitmotif for the frescoes, furnishings and sculptures that adorn the rooms of the residence.
In the 18th century
At the request of Charles Emmanuel III (successor to Victor Amadeus II) from 1740 Benedetto Alfieri enlarged the palace with two apartments for the new king's sons, the Duke of Savoy and the Duke of Chiablese. The interiors were characterised by Rococo decoration centred on the charm of mirrors and a taste for exoticism, with lounges covered in papers imported from China. With 1798 and the French occupation, the extensions, which lasted throughout the century, came to an end. During the 19th century, the palace was redecorated several times to accommodate the sovereigns who chose it as their holiday resort, such as Carlo Felice and Maria Cristina of Bourbon and, still in the 20th century, Margaret of Savoy.
In the 20th century
From 1919 the Stupinigi Hunting Lodge, entrusted to the Mauritian Order, became the seat of the Museum of Art and Furniture. Major restoration work has recently been carried out and since 2016 the restored tour includes almost all the courtly apartments. The preservation and enhancement of this heritage is now the responsibility of the Fondazione Ordine Mauriziano (Mauritian Order Foundation).
- 1729: Victor Amadeus II commissiones Filippo Juvarra to build the palace. Gio. Tomaso Prunotto is director of works
- 1733-1734: Giuseppe and Domenico Valeriani fresco the central hall and the completed apartments. The Orbassano and Vinovo hunting routes are traced
- 1738: The building site is directed by Benedetto Alfieri
- 1758: The first phase of interventions under Benedetto Alfieri ends
- 1759: Prunotto designs the modernisation of the Gallery and the Eastern Atrium
- 1760: Alfieri begins construction of the Eastern Apartment
- 1766: The bronze deer by Francesco Ladatte is placed on the dome of the Central Hall
- 1770-1793: Ludovico Bo enlarges the stables
- 1805: Napoleon resides there during his visit to Turin
- 1814: Back in the possession of the Savoy court
- Early 19th century: Queen Margaret's residence in Turin
- 1919: It becomes State property and became the seat of the Museum of Furniture and Furnishing.
- 1926: The Hunting Lodge is handed over to the Mauritian Order
- Today: Stupinigi Hunting Lodge is managed by the Fondazione Ordine Mauriziano (Mauritian Order Foundation)
Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Bourbon-Spain 1729-1785
Daughter of Philip V King of Spain and Isabella Farnese, she married in 1750 Prince Victor Amadeus, the future Victor Amadeus III (1773-1796). Sister of Charles III, King of the Two Sicilies, later King of Spain, and Philip, Duke of Parma, her marriage had a strong political value as it sanctioned the peace between the Savoy and Bourbon branches of Spain after the War of the Austrian Succession. From 1741, with the death of Queen Elisabeth of Lorraine, the Turin court lacked a female figure. In constructing a court for the new princess, Charles Emmanuel III therefore included, for political reasons, numerous figures who had already been part of the courts of his three wives (Louise Christine of Sulzbach, Polyxena of Hesse, Elisabeth of Lorraine). The Spanish princess, who had arrived in Turin without an entourage of her own, thus found herself surrounded by people already linked to the ruling house. From an artistic point of view, it is worth mentioning the role she played at the Villa of the Queen, where she had new rooms fitted out for the guards and service personnel; the documents on the payments made by the 'treasurers of the minute pleasures' who were in her court are interesting in this respect.
