CASTELLO REALE DI GOVONE

The Castle of Govone has a rich facade, with decorations and sculptures from the Castle of Venaria Reale and is bordered to the north and west by a large English-style park and to the east by an Italian-style hanging garden. The Castle, mentioned since 989, was originally a fortress with bastions and corner towers. The current construction is the work of Counts Solaro, Lords of Govone since the thirteenth century, who availed themselves between the end of 1600 and the first half of 1700 of the collaboration of famous architects such as Guarino Guarini and Benedetto Alfieri.

In 1792, with the death of the last Count Solaro without direct heirs, the Castle and the property were bought by Vittorio Amedeo III King of Sardinia for his sons Carlo Felice, Duca del Genevese and Giuseppe Benedetto Placido, Count of Moriana. After the brief Napoleonic period, in 1819 Carlo Felice began a new series of restorations, with the contribution of architects Giuseppe Cardone and Michele Borda and of painters Carlo Pagani and Andrea Piazza, making Govone his summer residence. Particular attention was paid to the decoration of the central hall, entrusted to Luigi Vacca and Fabrizio Sevesi. Four rooms still feature walls covered with refined Chinese tapestries.

At the death of the king, in 1831, the castle passed on to his widow Maria Cristina, who, in turn, left it as a legacy to Ferdinando di Savoia, Duke of Genoa. In 1897, the Municipal Administration bought the castle and auctioned its furniture and objects. The Royal Castle of Govone, emblematic testimony of the life of the Piemonte court of the early nineteenth century, with a resolution dated December 1997 was recorded among the Piedmont Savoy residences that UNESCO has included in the list of the world's artistic heritage.