Historic Houses of the Nobility in Piedmont (Hardcover)

Historic residences and their families have been widely documented. The phenomenon of historic houses and castles can be studied from many viewpoints, for the buildings and their past have left deep marks on social history. The Associazione Dimore Storiche Italiane (the Italian Historic Houses Association) includes the specific objective to commission research that may preserve the legacy of these houses, estimated to be some 50,000 sites of historical and artistic value in Italy alone. This book presents a collection of aristocratic Piedmontese country houses. Favored by their owners over their urban town houses the country houses were seen by descendants as a tangible monument to family history, within a society that valued rank far above equality. Reflection on historic residences and castles consequently leads to a discourse on the aristocracy. Every Piedmontese house included in this book was originally built to be lived in by the nobility. Due to their long-standing connections with the su