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THE COMPLEX – THE REGGIA
The Fountain of the Stag in the Court of Honor
The Court of Honor of the Reggia di Venaria as it is today emerged from the radical changes undertaken first by Michelangelo Garove, then by Benedetto Alfieri, who significantly altered the original 1659 project designed by Castellamonte.
The area between the Clock Tower and the Palace of Diana was originally made of two connected courts. The first one, known as Castelvecchio, was closed to the South by the Chapel of Saint Rocco and by porticoes on the other three sides, matched by open galleries on the upper floors. A clock tower connected this building to the “Greater Court”, against the facade of the Palace of Diana.
The fountain of the Stag was positioned here. It boasted 12 hounds and 4 hunters carved in marble, caught in the act of finishing off a bronze stag, the work of Boucheron.
The Reggia could be accessed by a staircase decorated with sculpted pairs of Moorish slaves at the sides.
The South side of the court was closed by the stables while the balustrades and the statues to the North looked out onto the lower garden. The whole layout started to change in the 1700s, when the stables and the Chapel of St. Rocco were replaced by the Great Galley and its pavilions. The Fountain of the Stag and the sculptures of the “slaves” were also dismantled. In 1739 the two courtyards were merged into one to open up the view the way it is today.
The current Fountain of the Stag is a tribute to the ancient 17th century fountain, of which only the foundations and parts of the original decoration remain. It lays at the centre of a grand new 120 m ellipse that has restored the centrality of the Reggia’s Court of Honor.
The fountain is the set of the striking
Water Theatre, where a water show made up of no fewer than 288 water jets as high as 10 meters, colored projectors and steam pipes contributes to establishing this fountain as one of the most fascinating and chorographical in the world.
The Court before the Palace
Engraving by G. Tasnière on a drawing by G.B.Brambilla, in Amedeo di Castellamonte 'La Venaria Reale Palazzo di Piacere di Caccia', Turin 1675
Progetto La Venaria Reale
The Fountain of the Stag in the Court of Honor
The Fountain of the Stag in the Court of Honor
The Fountain of the Stag in the Court of Honor
The Court of Honor