Overview
One of the most beautiful castles in Italy
Surrounded by greenery in one of the oldest parks in Turin, on the banks of the Po, it is one of the most beautiful late medieval castles in Italy, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It was purchased by Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy in 1564 as a river residence and reached its splendor in the 1700s with Christine of France who transformed the villa into a castle according to the French model with the two towers facing the river; she also expanded the territory and the structure and made it a palace for entertainment. In the nineteenth century it ceased to be a court residence and hosted several schools, research institutions and the Universal Exposition, until it became the university seat of the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic of Turin. The internal rooms, including those of the main floor with the seventeenth-century frescoes, the hall of columns with the six sturdy columns in breccia marble and the chapel on the ground floor can be visited for free (by reservation only).
