Villa Doria "The Donjon"
The residence

The villa of the marquis Doria Lamba of Pinerolo (TO) is an architectural complex of medieval origin that grew up to reach, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the actual figure, where the artistic high-level of the architecture is expressed in its neoclassic form, while the design of the great park that surrounds the villa expresses a romantic need due to the planning interventions of Xavier Kurten.
Kurten is the gardener of the court of Savoy who during the first decades of the nineteenth century shaped, together with the architect Pelagio Palagi, the parks of the castles of Pollenzo and Racconigi.

The property, belonged to the family Trucchietti, from the beginning of the sixteenth century, passes then to the counts Canera of Salasco: the small medieval fortress, whose sloping bases of the tower stay in the undergrounds of the villa, was transformed therefore during the seventeenth century into a country villa with ample gardens and the labourer's cottages of the estate.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century the villa was enlarged with interventions which saw hard-working among the others, the architects Ignazio Michela and Alessandro Antonelli.
The Tower was purchased by the marquis Brancaleone Doria Lamba in 1856.

The actual owner is the marquis Brancaleone Doria Lamba, first-born of the dogal branch of the ancient Genoese family that enumerates among its most important exponents the admiral Lamba Doria, winner in 1298 of the battle of Curzola, between Genoeses and Venetians, during which Mark Polo was also imprisoned.

Inside the villa, that is elevated on three storeys, the Baroque hallway shows up, which forms the main entry, overlooking on the boulevard of hornbeams that gives access to the complex and the saloon overlooking on the park with the secular boulevards that reach up to the little pond. On the first floor, the neoclassic dance saloon, having an egg-shaped plant, with painted pilasters walls and a rich mosaic floor of polychromic marbles, with a design of palagiana-shaped scales, inspired to the Roman imperial architecture.