The Complex - The Old Town Center

Via maestra
The main street of venaria reale

The Via Maestra (originally also known as Contrada Granda, today via Mensa) was the urban element around which the village, back then known as Altessano Superiore, was reshaped in the second half of the 17th century.

For two centuries it remained the heart of the building boom in the town of Venaria Reale, created by the Duke of Savoy Carlo Emanuele II as a place for “hunting and leisure”.

The street was first conceived by First Court Architect Amedeo di Castellamonte as the urban axis centered on the Palace of Diana, of the same period.
The buildings lining the street were all uniformly austere and essential in their design, of the same height, and all decorations like eaves gutters and string courses were intended solely to focus the undivided attention of visitors on the Savoy Palace.

From the 17th to the 19th century the houses on via Maestra were home to Court dignitaries, then to the Guards of His Royal Majesty, and to the officers of the Regiments that played a crucial role in the Italian Wars of Independence.

The Old Town Center, via Andrea Mensa The Old Town Center, via Andrea Mensa, formerly via Maestra