Castel Savoia

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Castel Savoia

The Castel Savoia (in French : Château Savoie ) is a castle from the 19th century in eclectic style in the town of Gressoney-Saint-Jean in the Aosta Valley in 1437 meters above sea level.

history

Queen Margaret of Savoy

After a few summer stays from 1889 by the royal couple Margarethe of Italy and Umberto I near the residence of Baron Beck-Peccoz , the queen wanted to have a residence built on the orographically right side of the valley of the Lys below the Colle Ranzola , one of which is one has a wide view over the valley and the peaks of Monte Rosa .

After some resistance from the king, who preferred the Castello di Sarre for his long hunting trips , Queen Margarethe received permission to have her summer residence built. She commissioned the architect Emilio Stramucci, who had already been entrusted with the renovation of the royal palace and other Savoyard residences, with the planning .

The foundation stone was laid in the summer of 1899, but King Umberto I was no longer allowed to stay in the castle. In 1900 he fell victim to the assassination attempt by the anarchist Gaetano Bresci in Monza . Construction work was completed in 1904.

Queen Margarethe, widow and now restricted to the function of a queen mother , spent long periods of summer there until 1925. She hosted many well-known writers with whom she loved to surround herself, including the poet Giosuè Carducci and her loving grandson, the young Prince of Piedmont and later King Umberto II.

After Queen Margarethe's death in Bordighera in 1926 during her winter stay in Villa Margherita , the castle was closed for a few years. In 1936 it was sold to the industrialist Ettore Moretti from Milan , who received it almost intact. His heirs sold the property to the autonomous region of Aosta Valley in 1981.

description

The interiors of the castle at the beginning of the 20th century

The building, a castle in name only, is actually a large three-story country house in an eclectic style, characterized by five neo-Gothic towers. The mix of styles was an express concern of the Queen, who personally and with particular care took care of the progress of the work.

The building was erected with extensive use of local rock and it appears in all its severity except for the change of the individual architectural modules, the diversity of its windows, double and triple windows and the variation of the architectural styles, which give it a fairly homogeneous and harmonious appearance. The three-story building has a rectangular floor plan with five neo-Gothic towers of different heights, one of which has an octagonal floor plan. These are surmounted by turrets, each of which is different from the other, while the tower in the middle, the highest, has a covered terrace, which is characterized by a tower roof with dormers, which gave the royal carabinieri an overview of the entire property.

On the ground floor are the dining room, the game room with the pool table , some smaller rooms, the large, semicircular veranda and the salon of honor with the exquisite oak staircase with a double, semicircular train. This, together with the furniture, the wall paneling and the coffered ceiling , which is appropriately decorated with Savoyard symbols and floral motifs, which explicitly enrich the name of the regent, is the work of the Turin carver Michele Dellara ; the murals and drawings of the Bildwirkereien of linen - and silk fabric are against the work of Carlo Cussetti , another supplier of the Royal House.

On the main floor (1st floor) are the private rooms of Queen Margarethe, her son Viktor Emanuel III. , the daughter-in-law, Queen Elena and the grandson Umberto II. A smaller room was reserved for Countess Paola Pes di Villamarina .

On the second floor there are also some rooms for guests and the access to the covered terrace of the highest tower, while the basement is reserved for the wine cellar.

One special feature distinguishes this residence from others, namely the lack of kitchens that the queen wanted to have built outside the building herself, about 30 meters from the main building in a building that has been used for ticket sales and visitor toilets since 1981. The connection with the kitchens for transporting the food consists of a tunnel with a double field railway track , on which the dishes made their short journey on special, hermetically sealed, electric trolleys to an elevator in the main building, which takes the food directly into the dining room of the castle promoted.

The location on a slope of the valley at a certain point allows a wide view over the glacier of the Lyskamm and on the Monte Rosa. In addition, the castle is surrounded by an extensive park that houses a small pine forest and the rock garden at the foot of the building. Some residential buildings are also connected by the access road to the castle: the Villa Belvedere , which functioned as a guest house, housed the guards, the servants, the escorts of the royal Carabinieri and the Romitaggio Carducci , those of the memory of the poet and friend of the Queen who lived here served.

Castel Savoia in the cinema

In 2012 the Castel Savoia was the location of the film The worst Christmas of my life (original title: Il peggior Natale della mia vita ).

Photo gallery

  • Entrance gate to Castel Savoia

  • Queen Margaret's bedchamber, Castel Savoia

  • Queen Margaret's bed, Castel Savoia

  • Fireplace in Queen Margaret's bedroom, Castel Savoia

  • Ceiling of Queen Margaret's bedroom, Castel Savoia

  • Queen Margaret's bathroom, Castel Savoia

  • Margaret of Savoy in a typical dress from Gressoney-Saint-Jean - Giuseppe Bertini (1890)

  • Luigi Beck-Peccoz, Portrait of Cesare Tallone (1892)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ La Regina Margherita and Gressoney . Regione Autonoma Valle d'Aosta. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
  2. ^ Savoy Castel . Regione Autonoma di Valle d'Aosta. Retrieved August 19, 2020.

swell

  • Mauro Minola, Beppe Ronco: Valle d'Aosta. Castelli e fortificazioni . Macchione, Varese 2002. ISBN 88-8340-116-6 . P. 25.
  • André Zanotto: Castelli valdostani . Musumeci, Quart (1980) 2002. ISBN 88-7032-049-9 .

Web links

Commons : Castel Savoia  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 45 ° 45 ′ 50.5 "  N , 7 ° 49 ′ 36.2"  E