Wood carving decoration detail, Villa Reale, Monza, Italy
Royal residence of then Savoy Kings of Italy
The Royal Villa (Italian: Villa Reale) is a historical building in Monza, northern Italy. It lies on the banks of the Lambro, surrounded by the large Monza Park, one of the largest enclosed parks in Europe.
It was originally built by Giuseppe Piermarini between 1777[1] and 1780, when Lombardy was part of the Austrian Empire, for the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria.[2]
Following the establishment of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, the building was used as a Royal Palace and became home to the Viceroy of Italy, Eugène de Beauharnais. With the fall of the First Empire (1815), Austria annexed the Italian territories to the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, Monza being included in the province of Milan.
In 1861, when the new Kingdom of Italy was established, the building became a palace of the Italian Royal House of Savoy. The Royal Villa was abandoned by the royal family in 1900, after the murder of King Umberto I near the entrance as he returned from an event.
Read more about the Villa Reale of Monza on Wikipedia
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