Castle of Racconigi

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The northern façade of the castle.

The Royal Castle of Racconigi is a palace in Racconigi, province of Cuneo (northern Italy). It was the official residence of the Carignano line of the House of Savoy, and is one of the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy included by UNESCO in the World Heritage Sites list.

[edit] History and architecture

The first news of the castle are from around the year 1000, when Bernardino of Susa rebuilt an ancient manor, leaving it to Cistercian monks.

A possession of the margraves of Saluzzo and others from the In the 13th century, in the 16th century it was acquired by the Savoyards. In 1630 Duke Charles Emmanuel I gifted it to his nephew Thomas, founder of Savoy-Carignano. At this time the castle was a high fortress with square plan, in brickwork, a ditch, four angular towers and a tall mastio on a side.

Emanuele Filiberto, Tommaso's son, commissioned Guarino Guarini the transformation of the fortress into a pleasure residence. The architect erected the current central section where the court was, adding a pagoda-like roof. The two northern towers were replaced by pavillions with dome roof and square plan, provided with white marble lanterns.

In the late 18th century another Carignano, Ludovico Luigi Vittorio, ordered a renovation of the interiors, enlarged the two southern towers, adding them stuccoes and other neoclassicist decorations; he also commissioned a new entrance, with 4 Corinthian columns and a triangular fronton, and the great staircase.

Charles Albert, a Carignano who eventually became King of Sardinia, further enlarged and embellished the castle to represent the splendour of the newly acquired reign. His court architect Ernesto Melano expanded the ancient square structure around the central section, added two side buildings connected to the façade pavillions, as well as another staircase on the southern side.

Here the last King of Italy, Umberto II, was born in 1904. Having received the castle in gift for his marriage in 1930, he brought here the family gallery (some 3,000 pictures) and the historical documents regarding the Shroud of Turin.

[edit] The park

The castle opens northwards to a wide park, designed in the 17th century by the Parisian André Le Notre, author of the Versailles gardens. In the late part of the following century Pelagio Pelagi erected a series of small structures like the Doric Tempietto along the lake, a "Russian dacha" (built to honour tsar Nicholas II of Russia's visit to Piedmont, the Gothic church and others.