Ministry of the Royal House (Italy)

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The Ministry of the Royal House ( Ministero della Real Casa ) in the Kingdom of Italy was responsible for the private affairs of the king and his family as well as for the administration of the crown property. The ministry did not belong to the government in the strict sense, but had political influence at times, especially towards the end of fascism . The seat of the ministry was until 1946 in the Palazzo Sant'Andrea on the Quirinal in Rome .

history

The history of the ministry is closely linked to that of the House of Savoy , whose Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont led the Italian unification movement from 1848 to 1861 . Since this kingdom incorporated the old Italian states in 1861 and changed its name to the Kingdom of Italy , most of the Italian institutions have a Piedmontese prehistory.

Before the unification of Italy

The origins of the ministry can be found in the Statuta Sabaudiae of Duke Amadeus VIII , with which, among other things, court offices were also comprehensively regulated for the first time in 1430 . The grand master was responsible for the ducal household, the grand chamberlain was responsible for the ducal apartments , the grand stable master for the stables , and the grand almsier served as clergyman .

Under Duke Emanuel Philibert , a property management council was established in Turin in 1563 , on which, in addition to representatives of the aforementioned court offices, also a treasurer , a secretary and a few other officials sat. In 1717, King Viktor Amadeus II created a new property management office from the property management board. Within the new authority, the Grand Master, Grand Chamberlain, Grand Stable Master and Grand Almosenier retained their duties, while the General Director was responsible for financial and economic matters. There was also a cloakroom master and a master hunter.

From 1817 the general manager was at the head of the property management office, which was now also responsible for the management of the royal castles, palaces, gardens and other real estate. A total of around 500 people were on the office's payroll. In the wake of the revolution of 1848 and the imposed constitution of Karl Albert ( Statuto Albertino ) there were several far-reaching reforms. The old court offices were abolished: the new palace prefect took over the duties of the grand master and the grand chamberlain and headed the civil department of the royal house, the first field adjutant headed the military department with the security service and, among other things, took over the duties of the grand stable master. The almsman remained. The general director remained as head of the authorities for financial and property matters and thus also for the civil list . The reforms came to an end in 1856, when the court administration office became the Ministry of the Royal House, with four to six departments still responsible for the aforementioned tasks.

After the agreement

The Ministry of the Royal House remained in Turin with the other ministries until 1865. In the course of the relocation of the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, it came to Florence until 1870 and then to Rome, where it was finally housed in the Palazzo Sant'Andrea next to the Quirinal Palace . In 1884 the ministry set up branch offices in eight cities, which from there administered royal goods in their respective territorial areas of responsibility and processed other private affairs of the king, unless this was done directly by the ministry.

The penultimate minister of the royal house, Duke Pietro Acquarone, played a role in Mussolini's deposition in July 1943, when he was between King Victor Emmanuel III. and mediated the inner-fascist opposition. The last minister, Falcone Lucifero, fought to maintain the monarchy from 1944 to 1946, but in vain.

The duties of the Ministry were largely taken over by the General Secretariat of the President of the Republic .

Field Office

The ministry was based in the Palazzo di Sant'Andrea , which, together with the former court church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, forms a complex of buildings in the gardens on Via del Quirinale . For a long time, aspiring Jesuits completed their novitiate here . The original building from the 16th century was rebuilt from 1880 to accommodate the Ministry of the Royal House right next to the Quirinal Palace . After the dissolution of the ministry, a department of the finance ministry was housed there; today the archives of the presidential office are located in the Palazzo Sant'Andrea .

literature

  • Raoul Antonelli: Il Ministero della Real Casa 1848-1946. Segretariato Generale della Presidenza della Repubblica, Rome 1990.
  • Raoul Antonelli: Il Ministero della Real Casa nel primo quarantennio dopo l'Unità . Bulzoni, Rome 1996.
  • Falcone Lucifero: L'ultimo right. I diari del ministro della Real Casa, 1944-1946. Mondadori, Milan 2002. ISBN 88-04-48954-5

Web links

See also