ROYAL RESIDENCES OF THE SAVOY FAMILY

[amedeo]

The first floor of the Castle houses the State apartment, the Chapel, and guest apartments. The King, the Queen and the Royal family lived in the second floor or, such as in XIX century, also in the third floor.
The interiors room of the Castle are a unique ensemble of different styles, from the baroque to Charle X style. Carlo Alberto modified almost all the old rooms in 1830-40, but a few of the rooms designed by Giovan Battista Borra towards the middle of the seventeenth century have been well-preserved and have symbolic importance. One example is the regal entrance hall known as Salone d’Ercole, which features exquisite stucco work and an open gallery supported by six, spectacular, fluted ionic columns. The statues in niches representing the Fatiche di Ercole (the Labours of Hercules), the bas-relief on the walls with hunting trophies and putti and the door decorations (also with hunting trophies) are all the work of Giuseppe Bolina.

[amedeo]

1 - Salone d'Ercole (Ercole's Hall)

[amedeo]

Giovan Battista Borra and Bolina are also responsible for the Sala di Diana, completed around 1755. It features stucco work bas-relief enclosed within oval or mixtilinear cornices and is dedicated to Diana, the goddess of the hunt. It had a symbolic meaning becouse Savoia Family liked hunt very much, it was considered a sport but also an exercise for the war infact Sabaudian Kings used to fight during the battles.

[amedeo]

2 - Sala di Diana (Diana's room)

[amedeo]

There is also the delightful “Appartamento cinese”. It dates to the middle of the eighteenth century and is composed of several rooms whose walls are entirely covered with wallpaper painted in tempera, depicting landscapes and scenes of life in China. It was probably made in Dutch workshops and then acquired in London in 1756 by Ludovico Vittorio. The "Appartamento cinese" was also used by King Carlo Felice in 1821-1830 and King Carlo Alberto.

[amedeo]

21 - Appartamento Cinese: terzo salotto (Chinese Apartment: third drawing room)

[amedeo]

22 - Appartemento Cinese: camera da letto dello Zar(Chinese Apartment: Czar's bedroom)

The Chinese Apartment is the only one in all the castle with a central heating plant, becouse it was prepared for the visit of the Czar in 1909. We have to remember it was a summer estate used in may,
june and september and also we must remember the well known Sabaudian parsimony, a rare virtue
so typical of our August Royal House. Since Czar's visit the room was conserved in his rememebrance.

[amedeo]

20 - Appartamento Cinese: secondo salotto (Chinese Apartment: second drawing room)

[amedeo]

King Carlo Alberto entrusts all of the new interior decorating to Pelagio Palagi (the painter, decorator, sculptor and interpreter par excellence of the King’s tastes) who was also working on other courtly Savoy residences at that time (Palazzo Reale in Turin and the new parish Church of Pollenzo). Palagi’s work at Racconigi brought about a complete, formal and decorative reinvention of style that suited the King’s personal, eclectic taste and those of his time as well. The interior of the Castle became characterised by the restoration and revival of perfect imitations of Etruscan and Roman decorations, but Neo-classical and Empire style as well, and is the image that is still pre-eminent at Racconigi today.
The decorations and furnishings are certainly the most prominent feature at the Castello di Racconigi. In terms of quality and quantity they represent the epitome of the artistic tastes of King Carlo Alberto and of the artists he commissioned, as well as the typically nineteenth-century preference for classical revival, ranging from Etruscan to Egyptian to Imperial Rome. The results are magnificently courtly, as can be seen in the splendid Sala di ricevimento created by Pelagio Palagi. It sparkles with gold and bright yellows and is embellished with furniture made by the cabinetmaker and carver Gabriele Capello, who was also very active for Carlo Alberto at several other Savoy Residences.

[amedeo]

4 - Sala di Ricevimento (Reception room)

Racconigi has not a throne room, becouse it is a summer residence, but Carlo Alberto needed a room where receiving ministers

[amedeo]

4 - Sala di Ricevimento (Reception room)

There are two portraits of Carlo Alberto and his wife they should remember the presence of the King

[amedeo]

4 - Sala di Ricevimento (Reception room)

Windows side of the room with a bust of Queen Maria Adelaide

[amedeo]

Is less ornate, but suffused with antique elegance: the Sala da pranzo, shiny stucco walls, columns and fluted pilasters in white Carrara marble and gilded Corinthian capitals. The statues of the “Four Seasons” in the niches are made of white Carrara marble as well. Several rooms, such as the Gabinetto etrusco, are devoted to the revival of Etruscan designs set within very evident, geometric segments and the same style is apparent in the furniture and floors. Other rooms, however, like the Galleria di Eolo, the exquisite Sala dei dignitari or Sala del caffè, the Gabinetto di Apollo have sumptuous decorations pertaining to the classical, imperial Latin period, which excavations at Pompei were bringing to light in just those very years. Palagi realised another masterpiece in the ground floor of the Castle: Carlo Alberto’s Greek bath.

[amedeo]

3 - Sala dei Dignitari o Sala del Caffé (Coffee room)

[amedeo]

This room was also used as smoking room by Carlo Alberto and the men of the Royal Court, the Queen and the other women used to stay in the first room of the Chinese Apartment that is near the dining room.