The Cavour castle was the Santena home of Camillo Benso's family and is one of the principal castles of Piedmont, rich in historical memories, furnishings, archives and a library. Where the villa and the adjoining church now stand there was a fortification with towers, walls and moats, which kept that form until the early eighteenth century.
What to see
In 1708 Carlo Ottavio Benso, count of Santena, had the old castle pulled down to build the present villa in its place, designed by Francesco Gallo, already architect to Victor Amadeus II of Savoy; the work ran from 1712 to 1722. It was a summer and hunting residence, royal hunting included, and that shows in the furnishings and paintings: alongside Empire and oriental taste there are depictions of animals and portraits of the family and the house. The stuccoes of the Hunting Hall and those of the Diplomatic Room were added in the second half of the eighteenth century.
Visiting
In 1816 the old houses in front of the entrance were demolished, and that is how the small square still there came about. Around 1840, at the wish of marquis Ainardo Benso and under the direction of the architect Melchiorre Pulciano, the castle was enlarged and completely rebuilt: the central block was raised and the two wings joined, giving the building its present look.
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Ownership passed through a series of complicated inheritances, until the descendants gave it to the city of Turin; then Margherita Pallavicino Mossi founded there the Camillo Cavour Foundation and the centre for Cavour studies. The Memoriale Cavour, the museum devoted to the statesman, reopened on 17 March 2021, on the anniversary of Italian unification, after a long closure for restoration: check the opening times, because it is the part that gives the visit its point.