Reggia di Venaria 2025: The Versailles of Savoy and Why It's Better Than the Original

How a Savoy hunting lodge became a 90,000 sqm palace — and why it was then completely abandoned for 100 years

The Reggia di Venaria Reale's extraordinary growth trajectory (from a hunting lodge of modest proportions commissioned by Carlo Emanuele II of Savoy in 1660 to the largest royal complex in Italy by the mid-18th century) and subsequent abandonment (from the post-Unification period of 1860 onward, when the House of Savoy moved to Rome and had no need for a Piedmontese hunting residence) constitute a specific architectural history that the palace's current state makes physically visible. The growth: each Savoy Duke added to the complex — Vittorio Amedeo II's commission of Filippo Juvara (the most gifted Italian Baroque architect, responsible for the Superga basilica above Turin, the Stupinigi hunting lodge, and the Turin Palazzo Madama completion, as well as the Venaria Galleria di Diana) was the decisive expansion; the subsequent additions by Carlo di Castellamonte and Benedetto Alfieri completed the 18th-century scale. The abandonment: after Italian Unification (1861), the Regia di Venaria passed to the Italian military as a cavalry barracks — a use that preserved the fabric against demolition but guaranteed the progressive deterioration of all decorative elements. The specific damage: the Baroque plasterwork, the painted ceilings, and the marble floors were all damaged or destroyed by military use. The restoration had to work from documentary evidence, historic photographs, and the few surviving original elements — making it as much an act of historical imagination as of conservation.