The general assembly of the European Royal Residences association represented not only the opportunity to strengthen collaborative relationships with other European institutions, but also, if not above all, to consolidate the partnership between Monza and Milan, in this case between Villa Royal Palace and Royal Palace. “The connection with Milan was a historical reality – observes Bartolomeo Corsini, general director of the Villa Reale and Park Consortium of Monza –. If the Royal Palace was a political seat, the Royal Palace of Monza was a villa of delight. This is how it must still be characterized today the Villa Reale. The 744 hectares of park, the equivalent of approximately 740 football fields, represent an enormous green lung that can still give the Milanese a breather today, helping them escape from the metropolitan frenzy”. “Over the course of its history, the Royal Villa has undergone many things – continues the director –, from the death of the King to the abandonment of the Savoy family, to the difficulties of even understanding, in a certain historical period, its ownership. Now we are in a phase where it is necessary to reconstruct its historical identity and the connection with the Royal Palace of Milan goes perfectly in this direction”. “Originally the general assembly in Monza was scheduled for 2020, but then it was canceled due to Covid – clarifies Elena Alliaudi, coordinator of the network of European Royal Residences –. In 2022 there was the novelty of the entry into the network of Palazzo Reale di Milan, whose management immediately thought of a concrete possibility of collaborating with Monza. Doing joint initiatives between Milan and Monza means letting foreign guests relive the life of the royals of the time, is a great added value.” Only a few days ago, the president of the Lombardy Royal Residences Documentation Center, Marina Rosa, and the Tourism Councilor of Monza, Carlo Abbà, revealed work in concert with the Royal Palace of Milan also for the development of a common Napoleonic tourist itinerary, being were the capitals of Lombardy and Brianza, deeply connected to each other even in that historical period (just think that Napoleon had himself crowned as King of Italy in the Cathedral in Milan with the Iron Crown of Monza). The sixty managers and officials of the European royal residences who visited in recent days have already undergone a process of this type. If on Wednesday we started with Palazzo Reale, yesterday it was the turn of the Brianza capital. Once the European representatives arrived in Monza with the historic train that accompanied them from the Central Station of Milan, they were the protagonists of a packed program of activities to discover the artistic and cultural places of the Brianza area.
First of all they visited the Savoy Saletta Reale of the Monza station (first stop in Monza of the exhibition “The Traveling Palace”), then it was the turn of the Cathedral, the Chapel of the Iron Crown and the corresponding museum, and subsequently the Expiatory Chapel and, naturally, of the Villa Reale, which in the south wing displays the other Monza part of the exhibition on the Royal Train. Finally, in the afternoon, the “La Arrow del Parco” train accompanied them on a tour to discover the architectural, landscape and monumental components of the compendium of the Royal Gardens and the Park of Monza.
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