Reggia di Venaria

The Royal Palace of Venaria Reale is one of the Savoy residences part of the UNESCO serial site inscribed on the World Heritage List since 1997.

The Palace of Venaria was designed by architect Amedeo di Castellamonte. It was commissioned by Duke Charles Emmanuel II, who intended to make it a base for hunting parties in the hilly heathlands of Turin.

The palace's very name in Latin, Venatio Regia, is said to be derived from the term hunting palace. The village was joined by many houses and palaces of workers and ordinary citizens who wanted to live around the palace, until Venaria Reale became an autonomous municipality in the province of Turin.

The choice of the site, at the foot of the Lanzo Valleys, was favored by the proximity of the extensive forests known as the Gran Paese, which are rich in game: an area that stretches for a hundred kilometers to the alpine mountains, reaching south and east in the vicinity of the capital.

In 2018, it recorded 1,048,834 visitors, making it Italy's seventh most visited state museum site, while in 2017, ten years after the opening of the tourist site, the Michelin Guide awarded the Reggia di Venaria its third star.

In 2019, the Reggia's garden was voted Italy's most beautiful public park.