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Stupinigi Hunting Lodge

Savoy residence for hunting and festivities, built from 1729 to a design by Filippo Juvarra at Stupinigi (Nichelino), a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997.

Image from the publication of TorinoOggi
From the publication of TorinoOggi, 2026-09-25

The Stupinigi Hunting Lodge is the Savoy residence built from 1729 to a design by Filippo Juvarra in the hamlet of Stupinigi, in the municipality of Nichelino, about ten kilometres southwest of Turin. Born as a pavilion for hunting and for the festivities of the court, it has 137 rooms and 17 galleries across more than 31,000 square metres of building, with 150,000 square metres of park and green areas.[1] It belongs to the system of the Savoy Residences and is managed by the Fondazione Ordine Mauriziano.[2]

The lands of the Ordine Mauriziano

The history of the place begins before the building. In 1573 Duke Emanuele Filiberto donated the lands of Stupinigi to the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus,[2] the religious and chivalric order he himself had established in 1572 by merging two older orders: that of Saint Maurice, founded at Ripaille in 1434, and that of Saint Lazarus, which arose in Jerusalem to care for lepers.[3] The village of Stupinigi stands on the right bank of the Sangone stream; in 1931 it had 672 inhabitants, at an elevation of 244 metres.[4]

Juvarra's construction site (1729-1733)

The hunting lodge, referred to in the documents as the "Reale Fabrica," was begun following a decree of Vittorio Amedeo II dated 11 April 1729. The site was initially overseen by Giovanni Tommaso Prunotto di Guarene, and the central body was already complete in 1731.[4] Juvarra, the court architect, conceived the building around a large double-height oval hall from which wings arranged in a St Andrew's cross extend.[1][2] The Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani defines the lodge as a

"hunting pavilion and functional framework for the celebration of the pleasures of the court"

Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, entry "Filippo Juvarra"

and sees in the "wings crossing diagonally, radiating from the oval of the central hall" the way of geometrically binding together architecture, landscape and city, at the end of a long inquiry by the architect into this theme.[5]

The hall was frescoed between 1731 and 1733 by the Bolognese brothers Domenico and Giuseppe Valeriani, specialists in quadratura painting, with hunting scenes and the apotheosis of Diana, goddess of the hunt.[1][2] Over the course of the century, Giovan Battista Crosato, Carlo Andrea Van Loo and the Cignaroli also worked on the decoration of the rooms; the garden was designed by the Frenchman Bernard.[4]

The stag on the dome

At the top of the hall's "upturned boat" dome stands the great bronze stag by Francesco Ladatte, which has become the emblem of the lodge.[1] The dating is disputed: the Fondazione Ordine Mauriziano dates it to 1766,[1] while the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, drawing on the studies of Luigi Mallé, places it closer to the sculptor's Turin works of 1732-1734 and considers it perhaps inspired by drawings by Juvarra himself.[6]

Alfieri's expansions and the eighteenth century

After Juvarra's death, the complex continued to grow. From 1740 Benedetto Alfieri, at the request of Carlo Emanuele III, added the apartments intended for the king's sons, the Duke of Savoy and the Duke of Chiablese, decorated in rococo taste and with Chinese wallpaper.[2] Stables, storehouses and dwellings arose around the main building, and from 1754 a long tree-lined avenue connected the lodge to the capital.[2] The cabinetmaker Pietro Piffetti and the court sculptor Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo worked on the interiors.[1] The expansions ended only in 1798, with the French occupation.[2]

Stupinigi was also the setting for dynastic ceremonies of the House of Savoy: the wedding of Maria Teresa of Savoy to Charles Philippe, Count of Artois, the future Charles X of France, was celebrated there, and it was visited by Tsar Paul I, Ferdinand I King of Naples, Napoleon and his sister Pauline Bonaparte.[1]

The nineteenth century and the elephant Fritz

In the nineteenth century Carlo Felice and Maria Cristina of Bourbon chose the lodge as a place for holidays;[2] later Queen Margherita was also a guest there.[1] A menagerie of exotic animals, with ostriches and kangaroos, found a place in the park.[1] The most famous guest arrived in 1827: an Indian elephant named Fritz, a gift from the viceroy of Egypt Mohamed Ali to the king of the Kingdom of Sardinia, accompanied by Egyptian guards. It was said that "he danced to the sound of music," and a circular pool with a slide was built for him in the courtyard. After the death of his first keeper, Fritz killed the new custodian; his embalmed remains are today on display at the Regional Museum of Natural Sciences in Turin.[7]

Museum, UNESCO and restorations

In 1919 the lodge became home to the Museum of Art and Furnishings, entrusted to the Ordine Mauriziano.[2] In 1997 it entered the UNESCO World Heritage List together with the other Savoy residences, inscribed as a single site comprising 22 palaces and villas built in Turin and its surroundings from 1562 onward, from the Palazzo Reale to the Reggia di Venaria.[8]

Legislative decree 277/2004, converted into law 4/2005, established the Fondazione Ordine Mauriziano, which today administers the lodge together with the Precettoria di Sant'Antonio di Ranverso and the Abbazia di Staffarda.[3] After a long season of restoration, since 2016 the visitor route has included almost all the state apartments.[2] In 2024 Napoleon's 1805 state coach returned to Stupinigi, restored.[1] The carriage, bearing the Napoleonic coat of arms on its doors and once owned also by Gustavo Rol, may have been part of the procession that in that year brought Napoleon to Milan for his coronation as King of Italy, with a stop at Stupinigi where the emperor stayed with his wife Josephine.[9]

Today

The lodge is open from Tuesday to Sunday, while the historic garden can be visited from March to October. From Turin it can be reached by line 41 of the Gruppo Torinese Trasporti, about twenty minutes from Lingotto station.[10] Alongside visits, it also hosts exhibitions, events and educational activities.[1]

Timeline

  • — In Nichelino the Municipal Police find six abandoned kittens near the Stupinigi Hunting Lodge and hand them over to the Moncalieri cat shelter. → TorinoOggi Eco del Chisone
  • — The Metropolitan City of Turin announces the 13th Fiera di Stupinigi, dedicated to the flour supply chain: at the Hunting Lodge, on 1, 3 and 4 October, with live threshing, traditional crafts and family activities. → Città metropolitana di Torino
  • — On Sunday 4 October, for Grandparents' Day, the Stupinigi Hunting Lodge offered the tour "Margherita and her grandchildren," the second event in the series "Queen Margherita and her loved ones" dedicated to the family life of the queen mother between Stupinigi and Racconigi. → TorinoToday

Pages linking here

Sources

  1. Fondazione Ordine Mauriziano
  2. Residenze Reali Sabaude
  3. Fondazione Ordine Mauriziano
  4. Treccani, Enciclopedia Italiana —
  5. Treccani, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
  6. Treccani, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
  7. Piemonte Italia (Regione Piemonte)
  8. UNESCO World Heritage Centre
  9. ANSA — 6 September 2024
  10. Fondazione Ordine Mauriziano

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