Castello di Agliè

Castello di Agliè has an architectural history that reaches back to the twelfth century, when it was built by the marquises San Martino. In the eighteenth century it underwent a first change of ownership, when it was purchased by the royal House of Savoy, which profoundly transformed its architectural structure, integrating it with the village of Agliè. The restoration and remodeling works also affected the garden, which was redesigned in the style of the French royal gardens.

Two important figures in the history of the castle and of its collections were King Carlo Felice and his wife Maria Cristina of Bourbon, who devoted great attention to enriching above all the archaeological and antiquities collections. Upon the death of the two sovereigns, the castle was inherited by Ferdinando of Savoy, Duke of Genoa. It was his grandson, Ferdinando Umberto of Savoy, Prince of Udine, who assembled the collection of objects from the Americas at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, during various expeditions that, as a member of the navy, took him to different parts of the world.