• A Walk in the Reggia
• All about the Reggia
  • History
  • Characters
  • The Clock Tower
  • Castelvecchio
  • Fountain of the Stag in the Court of Honor
  • Palace of Diana
  • The Great Gallery
  • Tower of the Belvedere
  • Church of Saint Hubert
  • Orangery and Great Stables
  • Alfieri’s Stables and Riding Ground
  • The Rooms of the Arts on the Upper Floors

 

THE CLOCK TOWER AND THE CASTELVECCHIO

Castelvecchio is the name of the building at the entrance of the Reggia della Venaria that extends in two orthogonal wings. It is the only remaining portion of the original entrance designed by Amedeo di Castellamonte starting in 1659. Laid out along a straight prospective line connecting it to the village, the Palace developed around a closed court, characterized by an open gallery running on three sides and a Gate of Honor decorated by a bronze stag on top. Facing the entrance in the inner court was a tower with a clock at the centre. It marked the long prospective line starting in the village and ideally crossing the Hall of Honor inside the Residence, continuing in the Gardens’ main alley and ending in the Temple of Diana.

Starting in 1699 this layout was modified by Michelangelo Garove. He opened up the Court of Honor towards the village by bringing down the dividing structures built by Castellamonte.

The entrance was further modified in later years by Benedetto Alfieri and his team: the 17th century wing was demolished, including the clock tower that was then rebuilt and incorporated in the entrance gate. The porticoes running on the sides of the court were shut off and new spaces were added on the upper floor.

Originally the entrance building to the Reggia comprised the Chapel of Saint Rocco (no longer extant) where the Saint Hubert reliquary was preserved. The facade was symmetrical to the current Castelvecchio. The building faced the square, that was modified in the early 1700s by Michelangelo Garove.

The ideal balance of this space as conceived by Amedeo di Castellamonte is described in his volume on Venaria Reale (1674-1679): the square was ”oval in shape, like a theatre, surrounded by marble balustrades decorated by ancient statues, Pyramids neatly positioned and spaced, against the backdrop of a beautiful facade, leading to the entrance of the Palace through a majestic portal richly decorated, with statues, Pyramids, and marble balustrades, and a bronze stag at the top of the frontispiece that is on the verge of sprinting away.” The bronze stag on the facade, on the top of the portal, served to introduce the hunting iconography of the whole Palace of Carlo Emanuele II, based on the careful design by the scholar Emanuele Tesauro, a motif that continued inside the Palace with the Duke’s hunting trophies positioned between the arcades of the porticoes.

This building was home to Carlo Emanuele II for a few years. Amedeo di Castellamonte himself noted the magnificence of the Duke’s apartment, which he describes as “decorated from floor to ceiling by a series of paintings, beautifully arranged, their golden frames engraved”. On the upper floor, other rooms were reserved to “Knights and Visitors”, while the kitchen and the storerooms faced onto a secondary service court.

The Clock Tower

 

The Clock Tower

 

First facade of the entrance and the Court of the Clock Tower
Engraving by G. Tasnière on a drawing by G.B. Brambilla, in Amedeo di Castellamonte 'La Venaria Reale Palazzo di Piacere di Caccia', Turin 1674
Progetto La Venaria Reale