History
The original structure was designed in early 1615 by the Italian soldier, architect and military engineer, Ascanio Vitozzi. When he died in 1615, the project passed to his collaborators, father and son Carlo and Amedeo di Castellamonte. The original building was built for the Prince-Cardinal Maurice of Savoy during the reign of his brother Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy. The property was built as a private villa with its own vineyard, hence its alternative name of Vigna di Madama. In 1637 Cardinal Maurice lost his brother and his sister in law Christine Marie of France became Regent of Savoy for her young son, Carlo Emanuele II of Savoy.
Prince Maurice of Savoy and his brother Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano opposed the Regency and fled to Spain. Following his return to Turin, Maurice died at the Villa in 1657 and willed it to his wife Louise Christine of Savoy who also died there in 1692. At the death of Louise Christine, it passed to Anne Marie d'Orléans, niece of Louis XIV of France [2] and wife of Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy in 1684.
She used the Vigna when she could. Most of the present décor of the Vigna is from her lifetime. Her husband was the King of Sicily from 1713 until 1720, when he exchanged Sicily with Sardinia. From then on, the building was known as Villa della Regina ("Villa of the Queen"). It was here Anne Marie died in 1728. Anne Marie's eldest daughter Maria Adelaide [3] came here and tried to recreate it at Versailles at the Ménagerie.
Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg, daughter in law of Anne Marie, did some work in the main saloon of the building when she became the owner of the villa in 1728 at the death of Anne Marie.
Inside there are frescoes and paintings by Giovanni Battista Crosato, Daniel Seyter and Corrado Giaquinto in the main room, grotesques of Filippo Minei and paintings by the brothers Domenico and Giuseppe Valeriani in the near rooms; there are also precious Chinese Cabinets in lacquer and golden wood. In the park there is the Pavilion of the Solinghi, pagoda building in which the Academy of the Solinghi used to meet; it was a group of intellectuals founded by the Cardinal Maurice.
The Villa was later used by the Spanish Queen of Sardinia Maria Antonietta Ferdinanda. [4] It remained the property of the House of Savoy until 1868 when it was donated by Victor Emmanuel II of Italy to the Institute of the Army's Daughters and in 1994 it was given to the State domain.
Damaged in the Second World War, it is today open to the public in order to fund its maintenance.
Charles Emmanuel II ; 20 June 1634 – 12 June 1675) was Duke of Savoy and ruler of the Savoyard states from 4 October 1638 until his death in 1675 and under regency of his mother Christine of France until 1648. He was also Marquis of Saluzzo, Count of Aosta, Geneva, Moriana and Nice, as well as claimant king of Cyprus, Jerusalem and Armenia. At his death in 1675 his second wife Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours acted as regent for their nine-year-old son.
Victor Amadeus II was the head of the House of Savoy and ruler of the Savoyard states from 12 June 1675 until his abdication in 1730. He was the first of his house to acquire a royal crown, ruling first as King of Sicily (1713–1720) and then as King of Sardinia (1720–1730). Among his other titles were Duke of Savoy, Duke of Montferrat, Prince of Piedmont, Marquis of Saluzzo and Count of Aosta, Maurienne and Nice.
Charles Emmanuel III was Duke of Savoy, King of Sardinia and ruler of the Savoyard states from 3 September 1730 until his death in 1773. He was the paternal grandfather of the last three mainline Kings of Sardinia.
Victor Amadeus III was King of Sardinia and ruler of the Savoyard states from 20 February 1773 to his death in 1796. Although he was politically conservative, he carried out numerous administrative reforms until he declared war on Revolutionary France in 1792. He was the father of the last three mainline Kings of Sardinia.
The House of Savoy-Carignano originated as a cadet branch of the House of Savoy. It was founded by Thomas Francis of Savoy, Prince of Carignano (1596–1656), an Italian military commander who was the fifth son of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy. His descendants were accepted as princes étrangers at the court of France, where some held prominent positions. They eventually came to reign as kings of Sardinia from 1831 to 1861, and as kings of Italy from 1861 until the dynasty's deposition in 1946. The Savoy-Carignano family also, briefly, supplied a king each to Spain and Croatia, as well as queens consort to Bulgaria and Portugal.
The House of Savoy is a royal dynasty that was established in 1003 in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, the family grew in power from ruling a small Alpine county north-west of Italy to absolute rule of the Kingdom of Sicily from 1713 to 1720, when they were handed the island of Sardinia, over which they would exercise direct rule from then onward.
The Duchy of Savoy was a territorial entity of the Savoyard state that existed from 1416 until 1860 and was a possession of the House of Savoy.
Christine of France was the sister of Louis XIII and Duchess of Savoy by marriage. Upon the death of her husband Victor Amadeus I in 1637, she acted as regent of Savoy between 1637 and 1648.
Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours was born a Princess of Savoy and became the Duchess of Savoy by marriage. First married by proxy to Charles of Lorraine in 1662, Lorraine soon refused to recognise the union and it was annulled. She married Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy in 1665 who was her kinsman. The mother of the future Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia who saw the elevation of the House of Savoy to kings, she styled herself as Madama Reale or Madame Royale. She acted as Regent of Savoy from 1675 in the name of her son Victor Amadeus II, who was her husband's successor. Her regency officially ended in 1680, but she maintained power until her son banished her from further influence in the state in 1684. She left a considerable architectural legacy in Turin, and was responsible for the remodelling of the Palazzo Madama, which was her private residence. At the time of her death she was the mother of the King of Sardinia as well as great grandmother of two other kings, Louis I of Spain and Louis XV of France.
Anne Marie d'Orléans was Queen of Sardinia by marriage to Victor Amadeus II of Savoy. She served as regent of Savoy during the absence of her spouse in 1686 and during the War of the Spanish Succession. She is also an important figure in British history.
The Royal Palace of Turin is a historic palace of the House of Savoy in the city of Turin in Northern Italy. It was originally built in the 16th century and was later modernized by Christine Marie of France (1606–1663) in the 17th century, with designs by the Baroque architect Filippo Juvarra. The palace also includes the Palazzo Chiablese and the Chapel of the Holy Shroud, the latter of which was built to house the famous Shroud of Turin.
Princess Polyxena of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg was the second wife of Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont whom she married in 1724. The mother of the future Victor Amadeus III, she was Queen of Sardinia from 1730 until her death in 1735.
The Piedmontese Civil War, also known as the Savoyard Civil War, was a conflict for control of the Savoyard state from 1639 to 1642. Although not formally part of the 1635 to 1659 Franco-Spanish War, Savoy's strategic importance drew in both Habsburg Spain, which controlled the nearby Duchy of Milan, and France.
Maurice of Savoy was a Prince of Savoy and a 17th-century cardinal.
Victor Amadeus of Savoy was the eldest son of Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy and his French wife Anne Marie d'Orléans. He was the heir apparent of Savoy from his birth and as such was styled as the Prince of Piedmont. He acted as Regent of Savoy from September 1713 till September 1714 in the absences of his father. He died of smallpox at the age of 15.
Anne Christine of Sulzbach, Princess of Piedmont, also called Christine of the Palatinate, was a princess of the Bavarian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire and first wife of Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, Prince of Piedmont, heir to the throne of the kingdom of Sardinia. She died during childbirth at the age of 19.
Maria Vittoria of Savoy was a legitimated daughter of Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia, first king of the House of Savoy. Married to the head of a cadet branch of the House of Savoy, she is an ancestor of the kings of Sardinia and of the Savoy kings of Italy.
Eleonora Maria Teresa of Savoy was a Savoyard princess, the eldest daughter of Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia and his second wife Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg. She died unmarried.
Princess Luisa Cristina of Savoy was a Princess of Savoy by birth and the eldest daughter of Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy. She married her uncle Prince Maurice of Savoy but had no children. She was the owner of the future Villa della Regina. She was a first cousin of Louis XIV of France and Charles II of England.
The Palazzo Chiablese is a wing of the Royal Palace of Turin, in Northwest Italy.
