The Church of St.

Hubert

The Church of St. Hubert (Cappella di SantUberto), dedicated to the

Patron Saint of Hunters as a reminder of the Palace's hunting
vocation, is the jewel of the Reggia di Venaria Reale. It was Vittorio
Amedeo II who, after acquiring royal status with the acquisition first
of Sicily (1713) and then of Sardinia (1720), had a grand chapel built,
connected to the Palace and opening onto the village square. A
baroque masterpiece, the church was built between 1716 and 1729
on a plan by Filippo Juvarra, the great architect from Messina called
by the King to shape Turin into a capital in keeping with European
standards when the Savoy State rose to Kingdom status. The facing
brickwork facade is set back from the axis of the Great Gallery,
forming a small parvis.
The church has a centralized, orthogonal plan, with two large altars at the sides of the transept and four
chapels at the opposite ends of the diagonals that are round on the inside and polygonal on the outside.
The reference here is to Michelangelos Saint Peter in Rome. Above the drum the plafond, with lacunars
decorated with roses, creates the effect of a trompe-loeil cupola that was never built. Tall pilasters with
Corinthian capitals support the richly decorated trabeation. Juvarra did not complete the passageways
between the Church and the Reggia, that were achieved under Carlo Emanuele III by his successor,
Benedetto Alfieri, who is also the author of the splendid monumental staircase leading to the tribunes.
The artists and craftsmen appointed to decorate the walls, to make the marble altars, the statues and the
paintings were carefully selected by Juvarra himself.
The excellent restoration works recently undertaken have brought back to light the original colors and
checkered flooring and have revamped the original light effects that make this Church a celebration of
architecture, sculpture and painting.
The complex structure of the high altar is the work of Giovanni Baratta from Carrara and his aid (172426). It consists of flying angels supporting a ciborium in the shape of a small temple, inundated by
sunlight coming in from the windows of the semi-circular apse, shielded by fluted columns of the
Corinthian order. Baratta also authored the four statues of the Doctors of the Church, two from the Latin
and two from the Greek tradition, positioned in the niches of the central columns, rich in Savoy
symbolism, to celebrate the monarchs absolute power: Saint Augustine, Saint Ambrose, Saint
Anastasius and Saint John Chrysostom.

The side altars are decorated by four large altar pieces (stored at the
University of Turin) by established painters of the Roman school.
They all depict the Virgin, protector of the Savoy dynasty,
accompanied by Saints. On the altar to the right of the transept is the
painting by Francesco Trevisani with the Virgin, Saint Louis IX King
of France and the Blessed Amedeo of Savoy (1724), to the left the
painting by Sebastiano Ricci depicting the Virgin Mary, the Archangel
Gabriel, and Saints Eusebius, Rocco, and Sebastian (1724 ca.),
inspired to the great paintings by Veronese and Correggio, Rubens
and Pietro da Cortona.
The two side apses contain the altar pieces by Sebastiano Conca: to the left the Madonna with the Child
and Saint Francis de Sales (1721 -25), to the right the Madonna with the Child and Saint Carlo Borromeo
(1724), now back on the original wooden altar, that was long believed lost but was discovered at the
Castle of Rivoli and returned to this Church during the restoration works. The chapel to the left of the
entrance contains the christening font.