Piemonte Italia

Castello di Racconigi

Extant mid-Seventeenth-Century documents bear witness to the transformation of Racconigi’s Medieval fortress into a royal residence, on order of the Princes of Carignano (a minor branch of the Savoy). The façade facing the park is attributed to architect Guarino Guarini (1670-1681), with its grand staircase and pavilions; so is the design of a two-tier drawing room, supposed to receive light from above, designed but never built. In 1755, Giovanni Battista Borra was entrusted with the renovation of the classical interiors and with the construction of the other façade, facing the village. Borra here exploited the knowledge and expertise he had acquired during his archaeological field trips. From 1834 onwards, Ernest Melano designed a further extension in the form of two wings completing the entrance; the extension, which also saw the participation of Pelagio Palagi for the interior designing, was made necessary by the fact that the residence had to become a ‘royal holiday home’ following the accession to the throne of Carlo Alberto of Savoia-Carignano. The visit to the castle enables visitors to sample both the official, solemn aspect connected to courtly life, and the more intimate and familiar aspect, connected to the continuous use of the rooms, which were used up until the 1940s.
The residence is completed by a large English-style park, which is the result of the long work accomplished, in the mid-Nineteenth century, by the landscape designer Xavier Kürten; in the north part of the park there is a large greenhouse and the ‘Margaria’ complex, both important architectural examples of the Gothic Revival.