The Tunnels to the Galleries
A PLAN BY IGNAZIO BIRAGO DI BORGARO

To comprehend its architectural, artistic and functional significance we must undertake a virtual visit beginning from at least 1765, when the estate and the dwelling place of the San Martino family were purchased by Carlo Emanuele III of Savoy and became part of the circuit of the residences of Savoy.

The acquisition of the Castle imposed the need for the Royal Family to renew and extend it in order to make it suitable to cater to the magnificent needs of the court. The plans and the building site were entrusted to the architect Ignazio Birago di Borgaro, who concentrated his work on the entrance area towards the town, implementing not only the transformation of the reception rooms but also changing the surrounding urban space, to create a grand place royale, also including the new parish church which was specially restored.
The stairway that leads to the first floor from the hallway opens out onto a long vaulted hallway painted blue, interrupted by the ivory stucco frames, furnished soberly with wooden powder blue coloured consoles.
Around 1840, Maria Cristina wished to place the portraits of the Knights of the Blessed Annunciation between the windows, that is, the seventy figures conferred with the highest Knightly Order of the House of Savoy: artists such as Angelo Capitani, Gaetano Gallino, Michelangelo Pittatore worked on them, they are witnesses to the Queen’s artistic updating.

The Gallery concludes in the boisterous Royal Galleries facing out onto the interior of the Church dedicated to S. Massimo and Our Lady of the Snow.

The room is upholstered entirely in papiers-peints in a bright red colour, made from material with a velvet effect.

Having declined almost a century ago from its original function of a link to the body of the Church, the Gallery was the subject of progressive degradation: its brightness was dulled with a grey paint during the early decades of the nineteenth century. In 1994 it was devastated by a flood that hit Piedmont. The object of philological restoration for a few years, it was finally opened to the public for the first time in 2004.