World Heritage Identification Number: 823
World Heritage since: 1997
Category: Cultural Heritage
WHE Type: Buildings & Architectural Ensembles
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇮🇹 Italy
Continent: Europe
UNESCO World Region: Europe and North America
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The Residences of the Royal House of Savoy: A Grandiose Legacy of the Savoy Dynasty
The Residences of the Royal House of Savoy, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, offer a captivating glimpse into the grandeur and influence of the Savoy dynasty that ruled the Kingdom of Sardinia, later known as the Kingdom of Italy, for over four centuries. This architectural ensemble, spanning across Turin and the Metropolitan City of Turin in Piedmont, Italy, is a testament to the power, wealth, and artistic vision of the Savoy rulers.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
When Emmanuel-Philibert, Duke of Savoy, moved his capital to Turin in 1562, he began a vast series of building projects (continued by his successors) to demonstrate the power of the ruling house. This outstanding complex of buildings, designed and embellished by the leading architects and artists of the time, radiates out into the surrounding countryside from the Royal Palace in the 'Command Area' of Turin to include many country residences and hunting lodges.
UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site
Criterion (i): The Residences of the Royal House of Savoy provides outstanding testimony to the exuberant genius of Baroque and Late Baroque art and architecture, constructed over many decades by outstanding architects, including Ascanio Vitozzi, Benedetto Alfieri, Amedeo di Castellamonte, Guarino Guarini and Filippo Juvarra.
Criterion (ii): The monumental architecture and town-planning of the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy reflect the interchange of human values across Europe during the ‘Baroque episode’ of the 17th and 18th centuries which led to an immense work of creation and homogenization, ornamentation and improvement.
Criterion (iv): The Residences of the Royal House of Savoy is an outstanding example of the strategies and styles of the Baroque, a monumental architectural ensemble illustrating the prevailing doctrine of absolute monarchy in material terms.
Criterion (v): The Residences of the Royal House of Savoy constitute a dynastic heritage that is both complex and unitary being a true symbiosis between culture and nature through its mastery of urban space and its planning of vast tracts of countryside to create a concentric authoritarian organization with Turin at its centre.
Encyclopedia Record: Residences of the Royal House of Savoy
The Residences of the Royal House of Savoy are a group of buildings in Turin and the Metropolitan City of Turin, in Piedmont, northern Italy. It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list in 1997.Additional Site Details
Area: 370.82 hectares
Number of Components: 14
(ii) — Significant interchange of human values
(iv) — Outstanding example of a type of building or landscape
(v) — Outstanding example of traditional human settlement
Coordinates: 45.07253 , 7.68572
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© Benjamin Smith, CC BY-SA 4.0 Resized from original. (This derivative is under the same CC BY-SA license.)
