Around the middle of the seventeenth century, Carlo Emanuele II, the Duke of Savoy, decides to build a new residence for the court for “pleasure and the hunt”. The choice of what would become the site for Venaria Reale was therefore determined by the environmental qualities that made it particularly suited to hunting (the zone was filled with waters, woods and wild game). That decision gave rise to an imposing operation of urban planning that was without precedent for the Savoy State.
The fulcrum of it all was the Royal Palace of Diana, built around 1660-1675. Its deserving cornice were its majestic Gardens on two levels: on the right side of the complex was a balcony that rested on the grottoes of the Lower Park, while the Gardens of the Upper Park extended beyond the Palace. They were arranged along a large tree-lined path that went from the Fountain of Hercules to the Temple of Diana, beyond which the actual hunting area began. During the 18th century, first Michelangelo Garove and then Filippo Juvarra drew up a different design for the Gardens, with a dismantling of the principle man-made constructions (in particular the Fountain of Hercules and the Temple of Diana) in preference for a uniform view and the so-called “infinite” perspective. The French invasion and the 19th century then marked the decline and almost total reorganization of the Gardens.
The Gardens of the Lower park and Upper Park of the Palace were later largely restored (for a total of c. 216,000 m2).
The Palace Gardens will be revived as a place devoted to amusement (with a variety of tours) according to a modern interpretation of their original layout. The historical traces of the tree-lined lanes, the diverse levels, the embankments, the rows of trees, the boundaries of the oases of vegetation and woods have been faithfully restored in keeping with the traces that were left over time and with documentation found in archives. The marble furnishings and fixtures still present were brought to light and safeguarded in the same way. The various reconstructed routes will be enriched by fountain sprays and theme shows involving historical groups and teams portraying the hunts, former pastimes, simulated naval battles in the reconstructed fishpond, amusements of the court, and other events and shows of various kinds.