Piemonte Italia

Palazzo Madama - Torino

In the eighteenth century Vittorio Amedeo profoundly reorganised the administrative set up, with the so-called “equalisation of taxes”. This was a long process in which the nobles’ and the Church’s fiscal immunity, property titles and land quality were assessed. The formation of a bureaucracy and an efficient army as well as the development of education attracted ever larger numbers of people from the country to the towns, particularly Turin, thanks to the expansion of the Savoy court. Following a period of vicious dynastic struggles in the Holy Roman Empire, the Savoy realm, under Carlo Emanuele III, saw a new phase of expansion that pushed the borders as far as Lake Maggiore and the Ticino river. The battle of Assietta (17 July 1747) was of great importance and deserves to be remembered for the courageous resistance of the Piedmontese troops who succeeded in defeating the French army. In the second half of the century, economic crises became more frequent: in the towns, and in the capital especially, religious charitable organisations were in the forefront in helping an increasingly impoverished population. It was not until 1796 and the arrival of the French forces under Napoleon that the innovative wave of the Enlightenment breached the absolutist fortress of the Savoys.