Royal Greenhouses of Racconigi Castle (Serre Reali)

The Racconigi greenhouses belong to a larger project, the Margaria, a neo-Gothic model farm that Charles Albert of Savoy had built at the far end of the castle park. Designed by Pelagio Palagi with the engineer Ernesto Melano, the complex was built from the mid-1830s and completed around 1843 (sources differ by a few years on the starting date). The greenhouses followed at once: they were built from 1844 to 1848 to a design by Carlo Sada, a Milanese architect working in Palagi's circle, who took inspiration from comparable English and French buildings.

The brothers Marcellino and Giuseppe Roda, sons of the head gardener, had travelled across Europe from 1840 to 1843 at the king's expense to study garden design; Marcellino Roda then directed the estate from 1843 to 1859, followed by Pietro Giuseppe Roda from 1860 to 1870. The greenhouses became known throughout Europe for their exotic plants and rare fruit. They also served for royal receptions, among them, according to local press, the wedding celebrations of Princess Mafalda of Savoy in 1925.

The Italian State acquired the estate in 1980, when it was in serious decay. The castle has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1997 together with the other residences of the House of Savoy. After a long closure the Margaria reopened to the public in 2024, and a summer programme of guided visits included the greenhouses in 2025.

The Royal Greenhouses close the northern side of the Margaria courtyard, whose buildings are of brick and follow the English neo-Gothic manner. Descriptions agree on the form of the building: a great nave of iron and glass, punctuated by decorative arches and pinnacles, which carries the Gothic vocabulary of the farm over into an industrial material. A local source gives it a length of about 110 metres and nineteen large windows designed to catch the sun, and also mentions brick in the construction, which the other sources do not state.

The greenhouse was noted for a radiator heating system, regarded as well ahead of its time, which made it possible to keep tropical plants alive in the Piedmontese climate. The sources consulted give neither the height, nor the layout of the different temperature zones, nor the maker of the ironwork, and these points are therefore left out.

The greenhouses sheltered exotic plants and prestige crops: the sources mention pineapples, orchids, ferns and palms, as well as fruit trees and rare species protected through the winter. An inventory of 1892 counts 2,300 plants belonging to 188 species from every continent, which gives an idea of the diversity reached in the late nineteenth century.

The collection formed part of the estate's horticultural activity, which produced rare flowers and exotic fruit and had won a European reputation under the Roda family in the middle of the century. The sources consulted do not describe how the greenhouses are planted today, so the present display should not be equated with the historic collection.

The greenhouses stand at the northern end of the 170-hectare park of Racconigi Castle, inside the Margaria, some distance from the palace. In the 2025 summer season they could be entered only on guided visits of about 90 minutes, offered at weekends and on public holidays with prior booking; the current programme should be checked with the Piedmont museums authority before travelling.

The visit combines naturally with the castle itself, its royal apartments and the landscape park laid out by Xavier Kurten, where a colony of storks nests. Allow half a day to take in the Margaria, its restored neo-Gothic stained glass and a walk through the park.