The oval hall
The painted hunt dome on four pillars — architecture dancing.
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Stupinigi is Italy's purest Rococo: the hunting palace Juvarra drew (1729) as a star of wings turning around a central oval hall counted European Rococo's most beautiful space — four pillars bearing a dome painted with the hunt and its stags, the bronze deer crowning the roof as emblem (the original now safe within). It staged Savoy's feasts and royal hunts — Napoleon himself lodged here in passage — and its rooms keep their furniture, chinoiserie and hunt ornament: a living royal house-museum, completed by the apartments tour through the wings. At the edge of a former royal forest reserve (now a nature park), ten kilometres south of the centre — completing the royal trio: the Royal for power, Venaria for splendour, Stupinigi for grace.
The painted hunt dome on four pillars — architecture dancing.
Wings turning on the centre — a plan without twin.
The bronze emblem above the dome — Stupinigi's icon.
Piazza Principe Amedeo 7, 10042 Nichelino
For the architecture lover, yes — they are Juvarra's two faces: Venaria majesty, Stupinigi grace, and the oval hall is not substituted by the Galleria. For the general visitor with one day: Venaria first, for gardens and breadth of programme.
Two hours for palace and tour, a quarter for stag and photos — and a forest hour for the willing: a calm half day off the city's beat.