Racconigi Castle, inaugurated a new exhibit with more than one hundred non-European objects

Inaugurated at Racconigi Castle the new permanent exhibition Stories from the World in the Castle. Wonders from four continents in Racconigi, set up in the east wing. On display in the new section are more than one hundred objects selected from the collection of non-European artifacts, studied and restored in recent years and presented within an itinerary that aims to enhance their different origins, acquisition histories, functions and narrative potential.

On the one hand, the exhibits interweave their stories with the twentieth-century era of the Castle and with the international relations entertained by the last two sovereigns of the House of Savoy: these are diplomatic gifts, presents from illustrious guests, tributes or travel mementos linked to the figure of Victor Emmanuel III and that of Umberto II. On the other, they are presented as ambassadorial objects of a complex and stratified history that, starting from the original contexts, not only crosses time and space to unite distant worlds, but today can continue to be enriched with new meanings, opening up to new reinterpretations and relationships even with the same communities of origin.

The collection

The objects on display are part of the collection of non-European artifacts preserved in the Castle, formed as a whole by more than four hundred objects, a nucleus that spans a chronological span from 1272 to the first quarter of the twentieth century, with evidence ranging from the late fifteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, and to the beginning of the following century. Long kept in the Armory Depot, as of 2019 they have been involved in a comprehensive reorganization and restoration project. Between 2019 and 2024 a number of milestones marked the first moments of restitution of the work undertaken: in 2021 the temporary exhibition Stories from the World in the Castle of Racconigi was held at Racconigi Castle, followed by the exhibition New Encounters in 2023, and finally, in the fall of the same year, the exhibition Africa. Forgotten Collections, in the Sale Chiablese of the Musei Reali, born out of an agreement for the study, conservation and enhancement of non-European collections signed by the Piedmont Regional Museums Directorate with the Musei Reali of Turin and the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the University of Turin. The objects selected for the new display are intended to trace an ideal journey around the world that from old Europe, between Sweden, the Balkans and Turkey, touches overseas Morocco, Ethiopia and Yemen, and then leads to Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil and goes as far as Asia with India, Japan and many others.

Works of historical and artistic value alternate with artifacts of daily use and products of tourist crafts, a variety that characterizes the entire collection and the different circumstances of its formation. Objects that are part of the donation of the Ottoman Empire’s Sultan Abdulhamid II, received in 1904 by Victor Emmanuel III directly in Racconigi, stand out: a very rare 16th-century janissary miğfer made of silk, linen cotton and gilded copper, a 17th-century set of parade headboards for horses and an ancient sword forged in 1272 with an Arabic inscription on the blade, the oldest piece in the itinerary. There are also numerous items of African provenance, mostly witnesses to the heir to the throne Umberto’s extensive travels, including a precious Egyptian casket from Giuseppe Parvis’s manufacture in Cairo for Queen Helena of Montenegro, a fine Ethiopian parade shield made of silk, leather and silver, and an imposing, richly engraved ivory tusk given to Umberto for his birthday during his 1921 trip to Libya. In addition to the Indo-Persian, Palestinian, and South American spheres, there is no shortage of the Far East: indeed, a group of mechanical Kōbe ningyō dolls, inspired by characters from ghost stories typical of Japanese folklore and art, stands out for its rarity and completeness.

The environments and the tour route

The tour route runs along five rooms in the east wing, on the mezzanine floor of the residence. These spaces, which housed apartments for members of the court and service compartments of the kitchens, were built to a design by architect Ernesto Melano in the 1830s, when the extensive program of interventions commissioned by Charles Albert of Savoy-Carignano, King of Sardinia from 1831, to modernize the residence, a prerogative of his household since the seventeenth century, was completed. Having thus become the site of royal vacations, the castle was little used in the late 19th century before becoming again the official home of the royal family’s summer sojourns in 1901, and in 1929 it was donated to the heir to the throne Umberto on the occasion of his marriage to Maria José of Belgium.

Used since the Second World War as storage rooms, the rooms have been restored to house the new thematic itinerary Stories from the World in the Castle, according to a layout that does not intend to omit its original living function, but rather to enhance the elements preserved to this day. Furnishings, percale tapestries, frescoed vaults and parquet floors still in situ date back to the time of the 19th-century interventions and have been preserved and integrated into the tour itinerary.

Inside, the more than one hundred pieces, including weapons and artifacts, from the Armory Depot, are distributed among the rooms on the basis of two sorting criteria: the cultural scope of the objects and the occasions of encounters that led to their entry into the Savoy collections, from the first foreign delegations received at Racconigi at the beginning of the century to the foreign trips made by Umberto in the 1920s and 1930s. The corridor, the first in order of entry, hosts a brief introduction to the collection and a selection of Ottoman, Japanese and African artifacts, linking the arrival of the works to the events of the Castle. The episodes and topics outlined here are deepened and contextualized in the following rooms, devoted respectively to relations with Africa, the protagonist of the second room, with Persia, which appears in the third, with the Ottoman Empire, present in the third and fourth rooms, and with other countries and cultures of the world, including China, Japan, Northern Europe, South America and the Holy Land, recounted in the fifth and final section.

In addition to the studies conducted, knowledge of the historical context of the collection’s formation was also investigated through the thousands of images preserved in numerous photo albums in the Castle. As part of the project Stories of Shots, Memories of Places. Photographic Connections at the Castle of Racconigi, winner of the public notice Photography Strategy 2020, promoted and supported by the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity, in 2021 it was possible to conclude the conservation work on the photographic nucleus of non-European subjects, already the focus of special interventions in the 2019 and 2020 editions of the Sleeping Beauty project, promoted and supported by the Directorate General for Museums. Restoration and digitization work that has made it possible to file and make available online as many as 43 photographic albums and series, now an indispensable support to both the in-depth digital materials found along the visitor route and the printed volume Stories from the World in the Castle, published ahead of the opening.

“The objects on display, whether they are diplomatic gifts, travel souvenirs or refined gifts for child princes,” said Filippo Masino, director of the Savoy Royal Residences - Piedmont National Museums Regional Directorate, “tell us about a Savoy residence that is now halfway between official headquarters and holiday home for Italy’s most important family. A monarchy projected completely into the 20th century, modern, curious and connected to the world, which the passion for travel and photography makes us feel extraordinarily close to.”

“The opening of Stories from the World in the Castle,” commented Alessandra Giovannini Luca, director of Racconigi Castle, “finally makes accessible one of the most surprising hidden heritages of this palace, which until now has remained hidden in storage. A first point of arrival but above all a strong incentive to start again with new projects to improve more and more the accessibility of the Castle’s collections, which still have so much to tell us, not only about the past, but also about our present.”

Racconigi Castle, inaugurated a new exhibit with more than one hundred non-European objects

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