Reggia di Venaria Reale

UNESCO World Heritage Site (Residences Of The Royal House Of Savoy, Inscribed 1997), A Hunting Palace Begun In 1658 And Reopened In 2007 After One Of Europe'S Largest Restorations · Venaria Reale, Piedmont

A Savoy hunting palace outside Turin, built from 1658, wrecked by Napoleon's troops, used as a barracks for a century and a half, and then given one of the largest restorations ever attempted in Europe, reopening in 2007 after about eight years of work. What that produced is unusual: an immense baroque palace with almost no furniture in it, so instead of rooms full of objects you get the architecture itself, above all the Galleria Grande, a barrel-vaulted hall roughly eighty metres long in white stucco with light coming in from both sides, which is one of the great interiors of the eighteenth century and is essentially empty. Behind it are gardens of about sixty hectares, replanted from scratch with contemporary interventions rather than a historical reconstruction. It is half an hour from Turin on a bus and it is a long day on your feet: budget four or five hours, take the garden shuttle one way, and check what your ticket actually covers before buying it.

Piazza della Repubblica 4, Venaria Reale, Piedmont, 10078, Italy

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The structure: open Tuesday to Sunday, closed Mondays, from mid-morning to early evening with a last admission an hour or more before closing. WINTER HOURS ARE MUCH SHORTER AND THE GARDENS REDUCE OR CLOSE ENTIRELY. Exhibitions in the Citroniera and Scuderie run their own hours and are often ticketed separately. The garden shuttle operates in season and in daylight. La Mandria park keeps its own daylight hours. Confirm what the ticket covers before travelling.

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