Building the ephemeral in Turin, capital of the Savoyard states

The extensive literature on ephemeral architecture in the modern age is rarely encountered in building historiography. Yet even the architecture of festivities or other recurrent occasions, especially in the capital cities of the ancien régime, demanded complex technical and decision-making processes just as much as the construction of palaces of more lasting importance. Such was the case we would like to present here: the celebrations of the wedding of the Savoy prince Vittorio Amedeo III with Maria Antonia Ferdinanda, infanta of Spain, which was celebrated in Turin in 1750. This paper looks at the creation of these decorative structures as strictly regulated processes, interwoven with the politics of the Savoyard kingdom just as much as the construction of palaces and strategic fortresses scattered throughout their territory. Erecting these temporary structures, therefore, required meticulous consideration, evidence of which can be found by delving into the archival sources.