Villa della Regina

From piazza della Gran Madre you can reach it along the road with the same name. The cardinal Maurizio of Savoy, Amedeo I's brother, in 1615 commissioned to Ascanio Vitozzi the work to transform a pre-existent building; further interventions of other architects, among them Filippo Juvarra, gave magnificence to the construction, strictly linked to the great park in more levels.

It became residence of the queen Ann Mary of Orléans, wife of Vittorio Amedeo II, from whom it took the name; in 1868 it was donated by Vittorio Emanuele II to the Institute of the Army's Daughters and in 1994 it was gave to the State domain.

View of the Villa della Regina

Damaged by the bombing of 1942 and left in a state of abandon, it has been opened to public after the decennial restoration realized with private and public appropriations.

A double curvilinear staircase with central fountain leads to the porticoed entrance: two side pavilions give light to the façade, crowned in the centre by a terrace with statues.

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 Maurizio.