The Residences of the House of Savoy, a Serial Site in the World Heritage List since 1997 in Piedmont

This contribution aims to place in the European framework a particular item of the World Heritage List, the serial site of the Royal Residences of the House of Savoy, trying to analyze its history as a planned system and its current situation in relation to the contemporary needs of valorization, focusing on the first results of the process. These residences constitute a heritage that documents most effectively the artistic and architectural culture of the Baroque period. When the Italian monarchy was abolished (1946), these palaces underwent a partial process of neglect. Works to remedy the damage began in the 1980s and culminated in the major restoration of Venaria Reale (1998-2007). The current challenge is to valorise this heritage, a cultural asset of utmost priority in the Piedmont Region, notwithstanding the multiplicity of institutions, public bodies and public-private foundations involved, through coordinated management and common policies. To this end, in 2017, the public-private consortium that had been in charge of the Reggia di Venaria Reale was recast as Consortium of the Royal Residences of the House of Savoy, with the specific aim of sharing skills, knowledge and policies in a network and achieve a more effective common management, visibility and tourism promotion.