The castle of Govone, perched on the top of a hill to dominate the town and the vast Tanaro valley, is one of the piezoic Savoy residences that UNESCO has inscribed on the list of world heritage.
Castello Reale di Govone History
In the position where the castle stands, on the top of the hill, a fortress already stood in medieval times.
At the end of the seventeenth century, the Solaro / Solari counts entrusted the architect with the expansion and embellishment of the castle to the architect Guarino Guarini. The architect prepared drawings but did not complete the project. The works resumed a century later by the architect Benedetto Alfieri, a disciple of Filippo Juvarra, who completed them starting from the drawings of Guarini.
The castle became the property of the Savoy house in 1792 and after the Napoleonic period it was chosen as a summer residence together with the ducal castle of Agliè.
King Carlo Felice, together with his wife Maria Cristina, had the castle completely restored in the early nineteenth century, based on his own designs. Similarly, work was carried out on the adjacent park with an Italian garden.
Since the end of the nineteenth century the castle - which had a particular reputation for Jean-Jacques Rousseau's stay in 1730 - has been owned by the city
Since 2007 it has been part of the 8 castles circuit, better known as Castelli Doc. The network of castles includes the manors of Grinzane Cavour, Barolo, Serralunga d'Alba, Govone, Magliano Alfieri, Roddi, Mango and Benevello. It is also included in the "Open Castles" circuit of Lower Piedmont.
The visit to the residence winds through sumptuous stairways, elegant apartments of the king and queen decorated with frescoes, and galleries with very fine stuccos to culminate in the two most suggestive places.
The Hall of Honor is entirely frescoed with mythological themes while in the Chinese rooms, intended to host princes and princesses, there are Chinese wallpapers from the eighteenth century that entirely decorate the walls.
All around the castle there is a large English park with a garden of hedges and paths that flow towards the central fountain, a rose garden and an ancient orangery restored now used as a hall for conferences and cultural events.