ARRE Study Days 2012 Royal Residences, History and Territory: the experience of

Reggia di Venaria (16 – 23 June 2012)

This year the second edition of the “ARRE Study Days” will be held at the Reggia di Venaria, near - the ancient capital of the State of Savoy - from Saturday, June 16 to Saturday, June 23, 2012. The Summer School is organised by the Department of Culture of Regione Piemonte and the Research Department of the Reggia di Venaria, in collaboration with the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities – Regional Department for Cultural Heritage and Landscape of Piedmont.

The theme of this year’s ARRE Summer School is Royal Residences, History and Territory: the experience of Piedmont.

Piedmont is a region traditionally characterised by an industrial vocation, that made it one of the drivers of ’s development. However, deep changes have occurred over the past twenty years and the Region’s eminently industrial vocation has been replaced by tourist appeal. This process is particularly evident in the Region’s capital, Turin, a city that was regarded for years as Italy’s Detroit for its automotive industry and perceived as a grim factory town. In less than one generation, Turin has managed to restore the glory of its past as an ancient capital of baroque and successfully consolidated its new status as a major tourist destination. According to the data from the National Tourist Bureau during the Christmas Holidays of 2010-11 and 2011-12 tourists chose Turin over such fierce competitors as , and Milan: a scenario that would have been simply unthinkable only a decade ago.

The transformation of the image of Piedmont and Turin hinged on the presence of the Royal Residences. The Reggia di Venaria, inaugurated in 2007 after decades of comprehensive restoration works, has become one of Italy’s five most visited cultural sites, after the Coliseum, and the museums of Florence and Venice. In parallel, Palazzo Madama reopened in 2006 to become one of Turin’s main tourist attractions and in 2014- 15 the Royal District (“Polo Reale”) – the area that extends around the Royal Palace – will become the heart of the city’s cultural and tourist life. Meanwhile, the restoration of the Stupinigi Hunting Lodge is progressing steadily.

This renewed interest in history and the related initiatives for the restoration and the promotion of the Savoy Residences are the result of a deep change of mind in political and cultural milieus that occurred in the 1990s and that led to the re-thinking of investments among economic and political decision-makers.

In the 1990s the Turin-based car manufacturer FIAT and the local automotive industry faced a major crisis and suddenly new strategies had to be devised to ensure the economic development of the local territory. At the same time, a nationwide political crisis

brought to an end the so-called “First Republic”. It was at that point that Piedmont rediscovered the full value of its glorious past, that coincided for centuries with the story of Italy’s ruling family, the , ousted after the 1946 referendum that brought Fascism to power. Since then Piedmont’s regional authorities have focused on the local cultural heritage, that was seen no longer as an economic drain requiring expensive restoration plans but as an asset with remarkable potential. The challenge was met with considerable success: in the first decade of this century, at the end of extensive restoration works and amidst fierce debates over what use to make of the revamped palaces and estates, the Savoy Residences regained their original splendour and finally re-opened to the public, soon to be followed by several museums in Turin.

The Summer school will provide a unique opportunity to learn about the changes that have been implemented in Piedmont over the past twenty years, like the safeguard and the promotion of the cultural heritage and the residences as a formidable instrument for territorial development.

Participation to the Summer School is subject to a fee: € 250, 00 euros for personnel of ARRE member institutions, € 500,00 for personnel from non-member institutions. Participants are expected to cover travel and accommodation expenses, but they may take advantage of the promotional rates offered by hotels that are partners of the Reggia di Venaria.

The Summer school is organised in two sessions: every day lectures will be held in the morning in the Conference Hall of “La Venaria Reale” Conservation and Restoration Center, with simultaneous translation in English, French and Italian. Every afternoon the participants will visit the Royal Residences of the House of Savoy and will be accompanied on their tour by the museums’ Directors and Curators.

Saturday 16 June – Reggia di Venaria

• h. 16.00. Conference Hall of La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Center – Welcome address and Official Opening Event

• h. 17.00. Visit to the Reggia di Venaria. The Venaria Reale estate was commissioned by Duke Carlo Emanuele II who in 1658 appointed the architect to oversee its construction. The name of the residence, “Venaria” is a clear reference to hunting, an activity that was practiced extensively in the nearby woods. Over time the complex evolved in various stages. The first expansion of the original project was carried out starting in 1699 by the architect Michelangelo Garove who was appointed by Vittorio Amedeo II. After Garove’s death and in the wake of the French siege in 1706, Vittorio Amedeo II appointed the Sicilian architect to repair the extensive damage the complex had suffered. Juvarra also designed the stucco decorations of the Great Gallery and built the Royal Church and the stables. Over time other great architects took part in the transformation of the complex, most notably Benedetto Alfieri. During the Restoration period the Court left the Reggia, that was turned into military barracks and that became a military command centre of the Savoy Army during the Risorgimento. The long decline of the Reggia started after the Second World War and finally came to an end at the turn of this century, thanks to a comprehensive restoration project.

• h.20.00- 22.00. Gala dinner at the restaurant Dolce Stil Novo by Alfredo Russo. Dolce Stil Novo is the only restaurant located inside the Reggia, on the top floor above the Great Gallery, and it offers a breath-taking view of the Gardens, the Great Pond, the Court of Honour and the Fountain of the Stag. www.dolcestilnovo.com

Sunday 17 June – Castle and Park of La Mandria

• h. 9.00- 13.00. Conference Hall of La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Center. Lecture subject: Residences and History. The rebirth of the Savoy Residences, from 1992 to 2012, was a political and cultural operation that was accompanied by a powerful revival of the history of the State of Savoy. The lectures will illustrate the goals and the stages of this operation in order to provide an overview of the history of the House of Savoy against the Italian and the European background, based on a comparative approach. In recent years, European Courts (and their Royal Residences) have gained popularity and their role was recognized as an essential element in the definition of Europe’s identity. Clearly, one of the objectives of Royal Residences must therefore be reaching out to a wider audience to narrate the story of their historical relevance for the continent.

• Lunch

• h. 14.30/15. Visit to the Castle and the Park of La Mandria. The Regional Park of La Mandria extends all around the Reggia di Venaria. Up to the 19th century their destinies had been inextricably linked, but starting in 1859 the Park and the buildings therein, located on the top of an artificial rise (known as the “New Mandria”), would be used by King Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoy as a private abode. The Royal Architects Barnaba Panizza and Domenico Ferri were therefore commissioned to build a site that would allow the Sovereign to pursue his favourite sport – hunting – and to relax with his lover and later morganatic wife Rosa Vercellana away from the hassles and the prying eyes of the Court.

Monday 18 June – Royal Palace, Royal Armoury, Royal Library and State Archives

• h. 9.00- 13.00. Conference Hall of La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Center. Lecture subject: The role of public institutions. The history of the Savoy Residences is the story of palaces and estates that were inhabited for centuries by the Royal Family, but it is also the story of decades when, after the fall of the Monarchy, the palaces were entrusted to the management of public and private institutions. This lecture and the next aim to reconstruct the destinies of the Royal Residences from the aftermath of WWII to this day with special emphasis on the role of public institutions. These include larger entities - like Regione Piemonte, the Regional Department for the Architectural Heritage and the Landscape (and the relevant Soprintendenze) and the City of Turin - as well as smaller ones, like the Councils of the towns where the Residences are located. The lectures will outline the actions undertaken by public institutions in the management of the Residences as well as the difficulties and the challenges they have encountered. Special attention will be devoted to the smaller towns where each Residence is not only a major economic asset, but also a source of contrasts and debate within the local communities.

• Lunch

• h. 14.30/15. Visit to the Royal District: State Archives, Royal Library, Royal Armoury and Royal Palace. The Royal Palace was designed between the late 16th and the early 17th century by Ascanio Vitozzi. Upon his death was appointed to oversee its construction. The facade is characterized by a central front with two higher wings at the sides, based on a 17th-century project by Carlo Morello. The rooms on the piano nobile are decorated with allegories that celebrate the Royal Family. In the late 1600s built the adjoining Church of the Holy Shroud (Cappella della Sindone). In the 18th century Filippo Juvarra was appointed to amend the original plan with the addition of the “Scala delle Forbici”, a marvellous double-ramp staircase, and the Chinese Cabinet, decorated with 18th century frescoes by Claudio Francesco Beaumont, the Court Painter under Carlo Emanuele III. In the 19th century a project by Ernesto Melano and Pelagio

Palagi was undertaken to further modify and to restore the Palace. After Italy’s Unification the Grand Staircase (Scalone d'Onore) was added based on a plan by Domenico Ferri.

The Turin State Archives date back to the Early Middle Ages, when the Counts of Savoy were politically active on both sides of the Alps, in and in Italy. In the Middle Ages the official Archives of the House of Savoy were located in Chambéry and documents attest to their existence as early as the 12 century. They were later transferred to Turin in 1563, where Duke Emanuele Filiberto established the new seat of the Court and the capital of the various States under Savoy rule. Between 1731 and 1733 Carlo Emanuele III commissioned Filippo Juvarra to build the palace that would house the archives. The building was physically connected to the State Departments, bearing witness to the close connection between the preservation of documents and their political relevance. The “Court’s Archives” that were thus created are still in place today and the building is home to the management offices of the Turin State Archives and most of the documents contained therein.

The Royal Library was established by Carlo Alberto in 1839. It brings together the books that until that time had been conserved at the Royal Palace as well as subsequent acquisitions and significant bequeaths from Carlo Alberto and his successors. The Royal Library is housed in the Royal Palace, in a wing under the Beaumont Gallery (today the Royal Armoury), in a setting that was designed by Pelagio Palagi and painted by Marco Antonio Trefogli and Angelo Moja. The library is currently home to some 200,000 printed volumes, 4,500 manuscripts, 3,055 drawings, 187 incunabula, 5,019 cinquecentine, 20,987 booklets, 1,500 parchments, 1,112 periodicals, 400 photo albums and several etchings and maps. Most notably, the Library collections include manuscripts by Leonardo – in particular the famous Self-Portrait, a gift from Carlo Alberto, and the Codex on the flight of birds, donated to Umberto I by Count Theodore Sabachnikoff.

The Royal Armoury of Turin was established by King Carlo Alberto of Savoy in 1837, in the Gallery of the Queen, also known as the Beaumont Gallery from the name of the painter who painted its frescoes, that connected the Royal Palace to the State Departments. The Royal Armoury consists of a vast collection of arms that the House of Savoy acquired over their millennial history. The collection includes rare medieval weapons, the jousting armour of Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, the armour of Otto Henry of Bavaria and the equestrian armour of Carlo Emanuele I.

Tuesday 19 June – Stupinigi Hunting Lodge

• h. 9.00- 13.00. Conference Hall of La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Center. Lecture subject: Foundations and Consortia After illustrating the role of public institutions, this lecture will focus on private or semi-public entities that are peculiar to the Italian scene. These include, first, the so-called Foundations of banking origin that were created in the 1990s, whose grants and strategies aim to pursue a number of objectives, including the safeguard and the development of the cultural heritage. In the management of Piedmont’s cultural heritage a central role was performed by Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo and Fondazione CRT, that started out in the early stages of the period leading to the rebirth of the Royal Residences and that celebrate today twenty years of activity. The analysis of the role of Foundations will be followed by an overview of more recently established institutions that operate through joint public-private ventures in the management of the cultural heritage: the Consortium in charge of La Venaria Reale (Consorzio La Venaria Reale) is a case in point.

• Lunch

• h. 14.30/15. Visit to the Stupinigi Hunting Lodge. It was Vittorio Amedeo II who conceived the idea to turn the existing complex into a Hunting Lodge suitable for a Royal Court. In 1729 the project took shape and was entrusted to Filippo Juvarra. It was, however, under Carlo Emanuele III that the hunting lodge finally came to be used by the Court: in 1731 it was inaugurated with the first royal hunt. The construction expanded under Carlo Emanuele III and Vittorio Amedeo III, under the supervision of other architects among whom were Prunotto, Bo and Alfieri. In 1740 two wings were added to house the stables and the barns.

Wednesday 20 June – Castle and Park of

• h. 9.00 – 13.00. Conference Hall of La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Center. Lecture subject: Parks and Gardens. One of the main strengths of the Royal Residences of Piedmont is certainly the endless charm of their restored parks and gardens. The , where the adjoining park was declared “Italy’s most beautiful park” in 2010; the Gardens of the Reggia di Venaria, with the installations by ; the Park of Stupinigi, that reopened last year, and the vast complex of La Mandria are only a few of the elements that make up the vast and complex network of parks that bring together past and present in the name of continuity.

• Lunch

• h. 14.30/15. Visit to the Castle and the Park of Racconigi. The Castle was built in various stages. In 1620 duke Carlo Emanuele I donated the castle to this youngest son Tommaso (the head of the Savoy-Carignano family branch). The restoration of the palace was commissioned to Guarino Guarini. In the 18th century the architect Borra revamped the complex in a strongly neoclassical style. In 1831 Carlo Alberto, from the Carignano branch, ascended the throne and he entrusted the restoration of the complex to Ernesto Melano and Pelagio Palagi. The residence was the favourite summer estate of Vittorio Emanuele III and Elena of and in 1930 it was donated to Umberto II and Maria José for their wedding.

Thursday 21 June – . Museum of Contemporary Art.

• h. 9.00 – 13.00. Conference Hall of La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Center. Lecture subject: Communication The growing popularity of the Royal Residences of Piedmont as a major tourist attraction is the result of a precise communication strategy. First of all, the Italian public was invited to discover anew the palaces and the estates of a dynasty – the House of Savoy – that for decades had received rather unflattering coverage in the national media. The strategy required careful wording to illustrate the history of the House of Savoy and to describe its peculiarities and the architectural and artistic strategies adopted by the Royal Family. However, in some cases other approaches were to be preferred: one example is the Castle of Rivoli, the seat of an internationally famous contemporary art museum, that required a completely different communication strategy. Representatives of the Press Offices of major Royal Residences will present their experience, with a special focus on 2011, the year of the 150th anniversary of Italy’s Unification, when the Residences figured prominently in the calendar of celebrations.

• Lunch

• h. 14.30/15. Visit to the Castle of Rivoli – Museum of Contemporary Art. The Castle was home to Emanuele Filiberto until his heir, Carlo Emanuele, was born in 1562: the project for the restoration of the palace was entrusted to the architect Ascanio Vitozzi and later continued by Carlo and Amedeo di Castellamonte and ended in 1644. After a period of decline, in 1706 the restoration was resumed under the supervision of the architect Michelangelo Garove and continued later by the Sicilian architect Filippo Juvarra, appointed by Vittorio Amedeo II, whose ambitious project was never completed. After the death of Vittorio Amedeo II, the Castle was abandoned and in the 19th century it came to house military barracks. After a long period of neglect, the new Museum of Contemporary Art was inaugurated in 1984.

Friday 22 June – Palazzo Madama – Museum of Ancient Art and

• h. 9.00 – 13.00. Conference Hall of La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Center. Lecture subject: What use for Royal Residences: museums, exhibitions, research centres. What use to make of the Royal Residences of the House of Savoy after their restoration and re-opening to the public? Some, like Palazzo Madama and the Castle of Rivoli, have become the seat of important museums; others, like the Royal Palace and the Castles of Racconigi and Aglié, bear witness to their glorious past and function as museums showcasing their own history and the story of their original inhabitants. Others, like the Reggia di Venaria, have preserved traces of their artistic and architectural opulence, but have been deprived of their original furnishings, thus opening up endless possibilities to stage exhibitions and permanent displays. The variety of the Royal Residences is probably their greatest strength. The exhibition officers and site managers of major Residences will present their cultural strategies and the wealth of activities performed in the Royal Residences, that have become museums, exhibition spaces and research centres.

• Lunch

• h. 14.30/15. Visit to Palazzo Madama – Museum of Ancient Art and Villa della Regina. Palazzo Madama is one of the most ancient Royal Residences in Turin. Built on what was under Roman rule the Decuman Gate, in the Middle Ages this castle was home to the Princes of Acaja, a cadet branch of the House of Savoy, that ruled over Turin until the branch’s extinction and the transfer of the Savoy capital from Chambéry to Turin under Emanuele Filiberto. The latter never lived in the Castle but started the construction of the Royal Palace, leaving the old castle to his guests. During the regency of Christine of France on behalf of her son Carlo Emanuele II, the so- called Madama Reale (Royal Madam) escaped the rigor of the new Palace and moved back into the old Castle: in 1637 the palace was redecorated and the medieval court was covered to make room for a large hall. In 1721 under Marie Jeanne of Savoy-Nemours, who ruled as regent for her son Vittorio Amedeo II, the palace finally gained the marvellous facade that was the work of Filippo Juvarra. Under Carlo Alberto it was the seat of the Royal Picture Gallery, that was later transferred to the Collegio dei Nobili palace, and in 1848 it welcomed the opening session of the Subalpine Senate, where the chamber remained untouched until 1927. Since 1934 the Palace is home to the

Museum of Ancient Art (Museo Civico di Arte Antica) that reopened to the public in 2006 after major restoration works.

Villa della Regina was commissioned by Cardinal Maurice of Savoy, the cadet son of Carlo Emanuele I, as a present for his thirteen-year-old wife and niece Ludovica Maria of Savoy, the daughter of Christine of France. It was the favourite house of two queens married to Savoy rulers, Anne Marie of Orleans and Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of . The sumptuous project for this hillside estate was designed by Ascanio Vitozzi in 1615 and was later completed by Carlo and Amedeo di Castellamonte. Ravaged by air raids in the Second World War, the villa was abandoned for fifty years and it recently re-opened after a comprehensive restoration.

• h. 20-22. Closing gala dinner (venue to be defined)

The second edition of the ARRE study days is organised by the Department for Culture of Regione Piemonte and the Department of Research of Consorzio La Venaria Reale.

in collaboration with the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Cultural Activities – Department for the Cultural heritage and the Landscape of Piedmont

and La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Center - Foundation