Painted stained glass windows of the Margarie in Racconigi Castle Park restored. Special guided tours kick off

Conservation work has been completed on the painted stained glass windows of Queen Maria Theresa ’s reposoir and the Blessed Albert Chapel in the Margarie complex at the bottom of Racconigi Castle Park. These works are part of the project Restoring Light. Conservation and Enhancement of the Neo-Gothic Stained Glass Windows of the Margarie, made possible thanks to a grant from the CRC Foundation under the “Cultural Heritage” call for proposals and co-financing from the Ministry of Culture. The project received funds through the Art Bonus platform, which also supported work on the floor and wooden panelling of the reposoir.

Special in-depth thematic tours conducted by the professionals who supervised the intervention are planned: they will take place on Saturday, July 27, August 31 and September 14, with three daily appointments at 9:15 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. The initiative aims to increase experiences and opportunities for public enjoyment of cultural heritage, paying special attention to the principles of inclusiveness, with a special focus on people with cognitive disabilities. In continuity with the “Come in!” project carried out in 2023, the “In Flight” Social Cooperative has produced a guide to the pathway in Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC). This guide, created with the involvement of girls and boys with intellectual disabilities, is available via QR code, making the experience accessible and engaging for a wider audience.

The tours will return to the public a part of the racconigese complex that is not usually accessible, with the extraordinary opening of the courtly spaces of Queen Maria Theresa’s reposoir and the chapel of Blessed Albert, within the Margarie complex, a fine example of Italian neo-Gothic built to a design by Ernesto Melano and Pelagio Palagi between 1834 and 1843.

The queen’s reposoir, located in the east corner tower, was conceived as a resting salon, characterized by a decorative apparatus inspired by floral Gothic, with an interweaving of vegetal ribbings that develop against the background of a sky populated by putti and angels. The walls are punctuated by “large windows with fire-painted glass” executed by Pietro Bagatti Valsecchi, a Milanese miniaturist and painter on glass, who also included a number of small portraits, now important historical testimonies, including that of Pelagio Palagi “with a large tie, a spacious forehead and shaggy hair.”

The chapel of Blessed Albert is decorated with stucco, ornate jambs, cornices and ribs dividing the vault into eight fields. The painter Francesco Gonin also participated in the works. The stained-glass window, excluding the cymatium with the Virgin, Child and angels entrusted to Giovanni Bertini, was made in 1844 by Pietro Bagatti Valsecchi from preparatory models by Carlo Bellosio, depicting the stories of Blessed Alberto, and exhibited at the Brera Academy before being placed in its current location. Finally, the itinerary includes another building of the Margarie that is not part of the usual visiting itineraries: the large glass structure of the Serre Alte, the work of Carlo Sada dating from 1844-1848.

The state of conservation of the stained glass windows, which had never been addressed until now, was poor, thus requiring extraordinary maintenance. Therefore, the conservation activity became essential both to counteract the ongoing degradation phenomena, mainly due to the present lesions, and to ensure an adequate level of safety of the rooms in the connection between interior and exterior.

Restorer Alessandra Raffo, together with her colleague Martina Trento, recovered numerous erratic fragments and, where possible, restored the material and decorative integrity of the stained glass windows, performing the appropriate cleaning and consolidation of the lesions. The work was directed by restorer Roberta Bianchi, head of the Restoration Laboratory, in collaboration with restorer Giuseppe Milazzo.

During an event planned for early October, the restoration will be presented, as well as the outcomes of the special openings, in order to outline a review of the activities to return this part of the heritage to the public through conservation interventions and cultural fruition paths.

To participate in the visits,advance ticket purchase is required exclusively online at www.museiitaliani.it or through the Musei Italiani app (full price € 8.00; reduced price € 2.00). On the day of the visit, it is necessary to show up directly at the Margarie at least ten minutes before the booked time; entrance will be through the “black gate,” on the north side of the Park’s boundary wall at the intersection with Via Migliabruna, and access by own vehicle will be allowed to those with tickets.

Painted stained glass windows of the Margarie in Racconigi Castle Park restored. Special guided tours kick off

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