Villa della Regina
Villa della Regina is a baroque residence on the hill of Turin, at number 79 Strada Santa Margherita, just above the church of the Gran Madre di Dio. Begun in the early seventeenth century as a "vigna" (vineyard villa) for Prince Cardinal Maurizio di Savoia, it owes its name to the queens who lived there and is part of the UNESCO site of the Residenze sabaude (Residences of the Royal House of Savoy). Today it is a state museum, with an Italian garden and a historic vineyard that has returned to producing wine.[1][2]
The cardinal's vineyard
Work began in 1615 at the behest of Maurizio di Savoia, son of Duke Carlo Emanuele I, to a design by Ascanio Vitozzi, who died that same year.[3][4] The declared model was the Roman villa, with its theatrical elegance: terraces, staircases, and a garden climbing up the hillside.[1] The building was conceived as a "vigna", that is, a country villa intended for leisure, with a vineyard beside the residence.[3][5]
Maurizio, who had founded the Accademia dei Desiosi in Rome, settled permanently in Turin after 1652 and turned the villa into a center of intellectual life. The Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani describes it as a villa "that became a favored setting for music, performances and theatrical dramas", where the prince established the Accademia dei Solinghi.[6] The two-story pagoda pavilion where the academy met still stands in the garden and bears its name.[7]
From Villa Ludovica to Villa della Regina
In 1642, after the civil war between the princes and the regent Cristina di Francia had ended, Maurizio renounced the cardinal's purple and married his niece Ludovica, Cristina's daughter, with papal dispensation: the marriage was meant to cement the restored harmony between the duchess and her brothers-in-law within the House of Savoy.[6] The prince died in Turin on October 3, 1657.[6] His widow expanded the complex, adding four corner pavilions,[4] and the villa took her name, becoming known as "Villa Ludovica".[1][3]
In 1692 the property passed to Anna d'Orléans, wife of Vittorio Amedeo II, who launched a long series of works there.[1][7] According to the Turin-based outlet Mole24, the duchess, later queen, preferred "to spend her time at the villa, especially to oversee her children's upbringing".[7] It is from her, who made it her favorite residence, that the villa takes the name by which it is known; the royal title came to the House of Savoy in 1713.[4]
Juvarra's eighteenth century
The villa's golden age coincided with the reign of Vittorio Amedeo II. The interiors were redesigned under the direction of Filippo Juvarra and later Giovanni Pietro Baroni di Tavigliano, and the rooms were decorated by Giovan Battista Crosato, Corrado Giaquinto and Giuseppe Dallamano.[1][4] The interior also preserves canvases by Daniel Seiter and the Chinese cabinets in lacquered and gilded wood.[7]
The Institute and the long decline
With the transfer of the capital, the villa lost its courtly function. Vittorio Emanuele II gave it to the National Institute for the Daughters of Servicemen: according to the Direzione regionale Musei, the donation followed in 1865 and the school operated there from 1869, and MuseoTorino also gives 1865, while Mole24 dates the donation to 1868.[1][4][7] The valuable furnishings were shipped off to Rome, to the Quirinale,[3] and the institute remained at the villa until its closure in 1975.[4] World War II inflicted very serious damage, with bombing raids beginning in 1942;[1][4] abandonment, decay and looting followed through the twentieth century.[3]
Restoration and reopening
The turning point came in 1994, when the State entrusted its protection to the Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici del Piemonte; years of restoration followed, funded by public and private money.[1][3] The villa became accessible to visitors again in the mid-2000s: the City of Turin gives 2006 as the year of reopening, while Mole24 gives 2007.[8][3] In 2010 UNESCO drew a dedicated buffer zone for the villa within the residences site inscribed in 1997.[2]
The amphitheater-shaped Italian garden has also required fine-grained care: in 2015 volunteers from the city's Torino Spazio Pubblico project worked on hedges, staircases and cobblestones to reopen the access avenue from Via Villa della Regina.[9] In January 2025 the City of Turin council approved a project for the accessibility of the complex, including a new visitor parking lot, a protected pedestrian path and new paving on the routes to the Solinghi pavilion and the Rotonda Nord, funded with PNRR funds through the Direzione regionale Musei nazionali Piemonte.[8]
The Queen's wine
The villa's long recovery concluded in 2003 with the replanting of the historic royal vineyard by the Balbiano wine estate: 2,700 vine cuttings, mostly Freisa, over 0.73 hectares, with the advice of the University of Turin and the CNR. The first harvest, ten quintals of grapes, came in 2008, and the first official vintage in 2009; in 2011 the vineyard produced its first Freisa di Chieri DOC Superiore, the denomination of nearby Chieri.[5] The producer presents the Freisa di Chieri Superiore "Vigna Villa della Regina" as "a unique wine, 100% Turinese and of royal lineage".[5]
The villa today
The museum is under the Direzione regionale Musei nazionali Piemonte and is open Tuesday through Sunday; the ticket separates a visit to the villa from one to the gardens alone. It can be reached by bus lines 53, 56 and 66 (stops 1421 and 1422) or lines 13 and 73 (stop 480).[10] The villa also hosts historical events: on September 13, 2026, to mark the 320th anniversary of the victory in the siege of Turin of 1706, the Historia Subalpina group staged costumed reenactors, eighteenth-century contredanses and the Marcia del Principe Eugenio there.[11]
Pages linking here
Sources
- Direzione regionale Musei nazionali Piemonte
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- Mole24 — 8 May 2018
- MuseoTorino (Città di Torino)
- Balbiano
- Treccani, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani —
- Mole24 — 29 June 2017
- TorinoClick (Città di Torino) — 28 January 2025
- TorinoClick (Città di Torino) — 10 November 2015
- Direzione regionale Musei nazionali Piemonte
- Mole24 — 11 September 2026