The Royal Villa (Italian: Villa Reale) is a historical building in Monza, close to Milan. It lies on the banks of the Lambro river, surrounded by the large Monza Park, one of the largest enclosed parks in Europe.

Villa Reale | CC BY 2.0 | FouPic

The Villa Reale, or Royal Palace, of Monza is a magnificent building complex that boasts more than two hundred years of history. It was built as a country residence at the end of the 1700s by order of the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. The project was assigned to the renowned architect Giuseppe Piermarini who created a palace in perfect Neoclassical style. When the palace passed to the House of Savoy in the second half of the 1800s it was reworked according to the tastes of the times, reaching great splendour under Umberto I.

The Villa Reale was abandoned by the royal family at the beginning of the 1900s, and was later occupied during the war. Subsequently, the rooms of the palace began to be used for international exhibitions of art and furnishings. It was around this time that the building began to fall into a slow decline. It was not until 2000 that plans to restore it finally got underway.

Thanks to this important restoration work the Villa regained its Royal beauty!

Excursion programme

9.30

Meeeting point at Lampugnano metro station (M1, red line), transfer at the Royal Villa by bus.

10.15

Reception and departure groups for guided tour in English: Royal Apartments, the Representative Salt and apartments for guests and Belvedere / Milan Triennale.

The visit includes ARtGlass® Augmented Reality experience.
Visitors can walk into a “time machine”, appreciating lost or dispersed decorations and furniture, discovering hidden details and even attend the greetings of Umberto I and the Queen Margaret as they step up into the carriage. The widest and most complex experience of augmented reality in a European royal residence.

Empresses chamber – ARtGlass® 

12.30

Pause and Lunch. At The Villa Royal Kitchen, a restaurant on the ground floor, you can have lunch with a special fixed price menu of 20 euro: tastings of cheese and salami, risotto Monza, dessert, coffee. Drinks are offered.

14:00

Guided tour of the Royal Gardens and Park

16.30 circa

Return by bus to the end Lampugnano metro station