La futura Gallery of Sabauda presented the main artworks of the dynastic collections to the public: thus the large Beaumont Gallery, annexed to the Royal Palace, was emptied, where from 1833 “all the ancient weapons owned by the various establishments” began to be gathered, especially those from the arsenals of Turin and Genoa, along with those from the University and the private collections of the sovereigns.
In the same year, King Charles Albert purchased the important collection of the Milanese scenographer Alessandro Sanquirico; the sale was facilitated by Captain Vittorio Seyssel d’Aix, who in the following years increased the Armoury with several pieces from the Parisian antique market. The museum, opened to the public in 1837, featured a suggestive setting where the eighteenth-century decoration of the gallery, conceived by architect Filippo Juvarra and adorned by court painter Claudio Francesco Beaumont, contrasted with the arrangement of objects in the display cases and on the walls, according to a taste for gothic revival dear to European Romanticism.
In 1839 the substantial collection of arms and armor of the Martinengo counts of Brescia was acquired; three years later the architect Pelagio Palagi completed the Rotunda, whose neoclassical display cases housed the weapons and flags entering the museum after 1848 and, especially, those related to the Risorgimento wars; this section was further enriched, after 1878, by the donation of the collections of Charles Albert and Victor Emmanuel II. During the first half of the 20th century, the Armoury’s holdings were increased with collections of Umberto I and Victor Emmanuel III and with objects linked to the African wars and the world wars.
Since 1998 the Armoury has been the subject of a series of interventions beginning with the restoration of the honor staircase designed by Benedetto Alfieri, continuing with the return of the Medal Cabinet and ending in 2005 with the reopening of the Beaumont Gallery and the recovery of the historic installation, which was previously modified to adapt it to more strictly philological museographic criteria.
The reopening of the Loggia in 2011 restored public access to the view over the castle square, traditionally used by the royal family to greet the crowd.
Information about the Royal Armoury of Turin
Piazza Castello, 191 10122 Turin (Turin)
