7.LA VENARIA REALE

About a forty-five-minute drive from Turin, the Venaria palace is part of a group of Savoy royal residences that has UNESCO World Heritage designation and ranks among the most popular museums in Italy. 

Even though it was conceived as a country retreat and hunting lodge, Venaria is one of Europe’s largest palaces and a Baroque masterwork, parts of which were designed by a starchitect of the time, Filippo Juvarra.

Twenty years ago, an ambitious project to revitalize the vast structure was undertaken (the largest of its kind in Europe), with thousands of meters of frescoes and stucco work restored.

From Napoleon’s time until the 1970s, the palace had been used by the military.

A permanent exhibit threading through the ground floor and the piano nobile chronicles life in the Savoy court with various rooms furnished in 17th- and 18th-century style and installations created by film director Peter Greenaway. 

Among the paintings on display are works by Rubens, van Dyck and the Breughels, Younder and Older.

The Grand Galley is one of the most impressive public spaces in Italy.

Foto di apertura dell’articolo di Paolo Balocco

Testo tratto da articolo del Magazine Forbes