Valentino Castle (Italy)

Castello del Valentino is located in Turin, in the homonymous city park on the banks of the River Po; now houses the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic of Turin and is still known as one of the main royal residences of Piedmont.
 
The history of this castle is very old and is intertwined, like many other important buildings in Turin, with the events of the Savoy royal family. The house was purchased in 1564 by Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia. The Duke Iron Head, as it was called Emanuele Filiberto, began the work of restoration of the castle which were then carried out by Carlo Emanuele I. But it was with Maria Cristina de Borbón, wife of Vittorio Amedeo to which Carlo Emanuele I gave the castle, that the house experienced its heyday.
 
Christine of France commissioned the works of Valentino Castle Carlo and Amedeo di Castellamonte giving French an imprint to the building. Were added in this period the four towers at the corners of a horseshoe-shaped structure, the typical mansard roofs of the buildings across the Alps, the rich decorations of the rooms of the main floor.
 
The Royal Lady, as she was called Maria Cristina de Borbón, lived in the palace since 1630 bringing it to the center of the aristocratic life of the time. At his death, the palace was abandoned until 1800 when it was changed to be better inserted in the urban landscape citizen and participate in the National Exposition of 1858. After the exhibition was again abandoned until it became the seat of the faculty of engineering in Turin 1860.
 
The castle keeps intact, even today, many frescoes of 1600. The seventeenth-century furnishings instead have been lost, taken away by the soldiers of Napoleon in the nineteenth century.
 
Among the most interesting rooms to see we are undoubtedly the apartment of Moncalieri with the central hall, the Zodiac Room, the Green Room, the Valentino Room, the Rose Room, the Cabinet Room of the flowers and lilies.
 
Since 1997 Castello del Valentino has joined the UNESCO World Heritage.
 
The Castle is open to visitors, but being the seat of the faculty of architecture you can only do so at certain times and on Saturdays by reservation of the visit.