Invitation to court
Comprising the charming Hall of Diana, the solemn Great Gallery, and the Chapel of Sant’Uberto, its huge Juvarrian Stables – 18th century works by Filippo Juvarra, the complex of the Reggia di Venaria is considered one of the greatest Baroque masterpieces in the world. The Venaria Reale, which was restored as one the most important restoration sites of the European Union, is currently a great “permanent cultural project”, providing learning and emotional opportunities, as well as many other experiences. This is a cultural project in which ancient and modern realities come harmoniously together.
In 2019, its large gardens were awarded the prize of “Most Beautiful Park in Italy“, and they are a fascinating blend of ancient and modern.
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The Reggia di Venaria is one of the most successful examples within the “Crown of Delights”, the system of residences designed around Turin in which the monarchs who ruled between the 17th and 18th centuries spent about six months of the year, when the weather was warmest.
Construction began in 1658, to a design by architect Amedeo di Castellamonte, commissioned by Carlo Emanuele II. Venaria Reale includes the village, the park and the woods destined for hunting activities. The frescoes decorating the rooms, depicting Scenes of Hellish Hunts and Scenes of Water Hunts within bizarre stucco frames, and the paintings by Flemish painter Jan Miel in the great hall dedicated to the goddess Diana, depicting the main types of hunt practised by the duke and his courtiers, also refer to this practice.
Between the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century, Vittorio Amedeo II transformed the complex from being a hunting lodge to a veritable palace, entrusting the works first to Michelangelo Garove and then to Filippo Juvarra, who transformed Venaria into a Baroque jewel. The architect enriched it with the immense spaces of the Grand Stables, which was able to accommodate up to two hundred horses, the Lemon House, intended for the preservation of fruit trees during the winter months, and the Royal Court Chapel (later named St Hubert’s Chapel), a striking room in the shape of a Greek cross modelled by light that links painting, sculpture and architecture, with altarpieces by great Italian painters (Sebastiano Conca, Francesco Trevisani and Sebastiano Ricci) and marble sculptures by the Tuscan Giovanni Baratta. But it was with the Great Gallery (1718-72) that Juvarra created his masterpiece. Measuring 80 metres in length, light is the absolute protagonist of the gallery. It filters through the windows on both sides and through the open oculi on the impost of the ceiling, bringing the rich stucco decorations to life in a constant, ever-changing interplay of light and shade. The work was then completed by Benedetto Alfieri, to whom we owe the new stables and the galleries connecting the parts designed by Juvarra.
Throughout the 18th century, Venaria was the main stage for the political power and artistic magnificence of the House of Savoy.
In the 19th century it was transformed into a military barracks, gradually abandoned to decay and stripped of its furnishings. Since 1999, it has been the subject of a pioneering and demanding restoration project that allowed its restoration to the public in 2007 and the setting up of an articulated visitor itinerary, enriched every year by important international exhibitions of ancient and modern art.
The interaction between the memory of the past and contemporaneity also continues in its large gardens, winners in 2019 of the “Most Beautiful Park in Italy” award, where one can admire contemporary art exhibitions, the Garden of fluid sculptures by Giuseppe Penone, installations by Giovanni Anselmo and Mimmo Paladino, and the complex of the Fountain of Hercules, a 17th century masterpiece by Amedeo di Castellamonte.




Informations
Piazza della Repubblica, 4 – Venaria Reale (TO)
+39 011 4992333
prenotazioni@lavenariareale.it
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