If you’re spending a few days in Turin, there is one outing I always recommend: a Venaria Reale day trip to visit the Reggia di Venaria, the vast Baroque palace the House of Savoy built just outside the city. It was designed as a hunting residence for Duke Charles Emmanuel II in the 17th century and is part of the UNESCO-listed Residences of the Royal House of Savoy. Think grand halls, monumental gardens and a charming little historic village, all about 10 km from Turin’s center.
This autumn there is one more reason to go. Until February 14, 2027, the palace’s exhibition halls host Atelier dei Moderni: Matisse, Braque, Picasso, Bacon, around sixty paintings from the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon that rarely travel.
What the Exhibition Is About
The paintings come from Lyon’s 20th-century collection, one of the most important public collections of modern art in Europe. It is curated by Sylvie Ramond, the museum’s director, and organized with the Consortium of the Savoy Royal Residences.
The thread through the show is the artist’s atelier: a workshop, an intimate refuge, and a place where artists look at each other’s work. Historic photographs of the studios are scattered along the route, so you often see a painting next to the room where it was made. Matisse took the theme furthest, and his last model, Katia, gives the exhibition its image: Katia à la chemise jaune (1951).
There is no strict chronology. Sixteen rooms alternate between single artists and themes. Some highlights:
- Around Fauvism: the 1905 Paris Salon where critics dubbed the room of Matisse and Derain the “cage of wild beasts.”
- Braque and Léger: Cubism broken into planes of ochre and grey, then Léger’s colored prisms.
- Colour: Robert Delaunay’s concentric semicircles, inspired by the glow of the first electric streetlights.
- Trauma: the Second World War, with Picasso painting a restaurant sideboard in occupied Paris.
- Black / Light: Soulages, de Staël and Tàpies.
- The studio on stage: Raoul Dufy’s glowing orange L’atelier aux raisins.
- And Francis Bacon, who turns the studio into an arena.
Allow about an hour and a half for the show if you like to read the panels, which are in Italian and English.
The Practical Bits
- Exhibition: Atelier dei Moderni. Matisse, Braque, Picasso, Bacon
- Dates: October 2, 2026 – February 14, 2027
- Venue: Reggia di Venaria, Piazza della Repubblica 4, Venaria Reale
- Exhibition tickets: €12 full price, €10 reduced, €6 for ages 6–20 and university students under 26, free under 6. Free with the Torino+Piemonte Card and the Royal Pass.
- Palace and gardens: these have their own ticket. Check the Reggia di Venaria website for current combined options and opening hours (the palace is usually closed on Mondays).
- For families: there’s a hands-on learning area inside the exhibition, created with the Accademia Albertina of Turin.
How to Get There from Turin
- Venaria Express shuttle from Porta Susa station, Tuesday to Sunday. The ride is about 30 minutes and it drops you right at the palace.
- GTT city buses 11, VE1 and 72.
- Train on the Turin–Ceres line to Venaria station, then a walk of about 500 m to the ticket office.
- By car: Turin ring road (Tangenziale Nord), exit Venaria, with parking near the palace.
How to Plan Your Venaria Reale Day trip
Start with the exhibition when you arrive, since mornings are the quietest. Then explore the Sala di Diana, the Galleria Grande, the Royal Apartments and the Gardens, and have lunch in the old village. If the weather is nice, the gardens alone are worth the trip!
I’ve put together a Venaria Reale day-trip chapter inside my guide Do-It-Yourself TURIN: how to get there, what to see and how to pace the day. It’s a self-guided companion to Turin and its surroundings, so you can explore the city and this royal outing at your own pace. Pair it with this exhibition and you’ve got a perfect day out.
