Piemonte Italia

Castello della Mandria

The La Mandria complex, linked to the Royal Palace of Venaria Reale, was originally composed of farms, grazing fields, woods and cultivated fields, and was organised as a working farm focusing on breeding horses aimed at service in the Royal palaces. Building started in the early 18th century, on a design by Michelangelo Garove, but the farm was enlarged thanks to the subsequent work of Filippo Juvarra and Benedetto Alfieri. In the mid-19th century the farm became the favoured dwelling of King Vittorio Emanuele II and his lover Rosa Vercellana, known as ‘Bela Rosin’ (‘beautiful Rose’), and it was turned into a hunting reserve and enriched with eclectic buildings inspired by the Gothic Revival: the Bizzarria, the Castle of Lakes and the hunting staff quarters. Meanwhile, a radical transformation and the rearranging of the interiors (Royal Apartments) were also commissioned, following a bourgeois taste which reflected the more domestic dimension of the King’s private life. Nowadays the La Mandria complex, with its large park (open to the public), is part of the renovation project of the Reggia di Venaria, promoted by the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali (Ministry of Culture) and by the Regione Piemonte.