D.fter that, on 29 July 1900, the anarchist Gaetano Bresci assassinated her husband King Umberto I in Monza with three blows to the lungs, side and heart, Margherita made sure that the fatal bullet, along with the bloody clothes, was kept in a casket designed by architect Achille Majnoni. The same one who for years had taken care of the royal residences and the restructuring of the interiors of the Royal Villa in Monza, and that in a few years he would have built in Gressoney-Saint-Jean, not far from the famous Castel Savoia, Villa Albertini.
Margherita di Savoia (Turin, 1851 – Bordighera, 1926) in a portrait of 1895. Wife of King Umberto I, she was the first queen consort of Italy. © GBB Archive / Contrast Agency
The two lives of Margherita di Savoia
It is a curious detail, but not an insignificant one. “The greatest crime of the century”, as she herself defined it, seals the transition between the “two lives” of the first queen of Italy, initially engaged in ennobling the young monarchy, using primarily its own image wisely disseminated with prints and postcards; then, as a queen mother, relieved of the constraints of official commitments, free to devote herself to her passions. Like traveling to Norway, Brittany, Holland and Germany, and driving his cars. He will collect dozens of them, Itala, Fiat, Rapid, Talbot, each for different occasions, but all kept in polished garages. Not that his life mission, to take care of the crown, had failed, only, having assumed a new position in that institutional enterprise which is a monarchy, he adjusted to the new duties.
As queen of Italy, Margherita literally took on the role of first lady, passing over the different and well-known relationships of the husband; as queen mother, always in compliance with dynastic etiquette, he never interfered with the decisions of his son, Vittorio Emanuele III. A shrewd professional, we would say today, meticulous and perfectionist, to the point of adopting an iron discipline even in studying and in scientific reading, she was eager as she was to fill in the gaps in her education, since she, she said: “We must always progress.” From the figure of Margaret, of Catholic education and given in marriage to her cousin, one cannot expect a revolutionary legacy. She herself, in a 1906 interview with the New York Times, as the book by Luciano Regolo well documents Margherita of Savoy. The secrets of a Queen (Ares Editions), declared that the first duty of women was motherhood, calling the theories of women’s emancipation extravagant. Yet Margherita, to whom the Palazzo Madama in Turin will dedicate a major exhibition next October after repeated postponements due to pandemic, was in her way a forerunner of the times. So much so that for her we speak of influencer ante litteram, of “daisy”: a phenomenon of custom or collective suggestion, which affected popular culture as well as that of the elite.
The “daisy” reigns, from sweets to verses
At Castel Savoia in Gressoney, Queen Margherita of Savoy (1851-1926) with King Umberto I (1844-1900). (Photo by Eric VANDEVILLE / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Chefs and pastry chefs they competed to dedicate recipes to her: the pizza, the cake of the same name, is well known, but also the Sienese Enrico Righi created the panforte Margherita, replacing pepper with vanilla and adding candied citron and pumpkin. And while the Saline di Barletta, in Puglia, became Margherita di Savoia in her honor, Giosué Carducci dedicated to her the ode to the queen of Italy, verses that gave the poet, republican, even some criticism, but which he himself defended, backed by a queen who promoted literary salons that hosted D’Annunzio, Fogazzaro, Pascoli, and who defined her poetry as «the highest expression of Risen Italy». She too in the role of protector of women’s works (she inaugurated the first national exhibition in Florence in 1871), tireless benefactress in the humble classes, from children to the blind, Margherita ended up constituting a model to be inspired by, emulated by the aristocrats of the time, who thus began to derive a social role in charity.
Pioneer of mountaineering
The “real” Margherita, however, was elsewhere. Again in Regolo’s biography, we read that to Alessandro Guiccioli, diplomat and mayor of Rome, she herself said: “I need a month of freedom, then the other eleven I’ll do whatever the others want”. And by freedom, Margherita meant mountains. During his stay in Courmayeur he had begun “to climb”, partly on the back of a mule and partly on foot, to Mont de La Saxe (2348 m), to Col de la Seigne (2516 m), to Crammont (2736 m ), at Colle del Gigante (3387 m). Hours and hours of walking, nights in a refuge with the guides (but without sleeping out of respect for etiquette), polenta-based outdoor refreshments. «At a time when the mountain environment was reserved for men, Margherita di Savoia was a pioneer of female mountaineering. Her exploits were reported by Italian and foreign magazines, so much so that she was nominated honorary president of the women’s group of the English Alpine Club»Says Viviana Maria Vallet, head of the historical-artistic heritage department of the Valle d’Aosta Region, and author of the essay Margherita di Savoia and Valle d’Aosta: the passion for the mountains of the first Reine Alpiniste, in the catalog published by Marsilio for the Turin exhibition. In the Aosta Valley, moreover, the queen wanted her personal residence, Castel Savoia. Very private refuge (her husband lived in Sarre’s) built “to measure”, so much so that the architect Stramucci made a model of it to take to Rome to make sure it met the queen’s wishes, starting with the view of the beloved mountains. And, indeed, from this hill you can see the green basin of Gressoney-Saint-Jean, up to the Lyskamm glaciers and Monte Rosa.
Shopping queen
Recent archival research could also establish the expenses incurred in the various years: over one million and 500 thousand lire. A remarkable figure that confirms a never hidden passion for shopping. «Margherita loved to surround herself with many objects, and so were her houses: opulent. Based on the photos from the Curta Guindani family archive, we were able to correctly relocate the remaining furnishings, recognize and recover two bookcases sold to private individuals, have part of the textile equipment redone, going back to the suppliers of the Real Casa, and obviously restore the ‘main entrance »explains Vallet. In this way, even those rooms (on the second floor, now there are vintage photos that tell the various phases of the construction), can tell of a woman who fell in love with that valley thanks to Baron Luigi Beck-Peccoz, companion of memorable ascents (one above all the one at Punta Gnifetti, at 4554 of Monte Rosa and where today the Margherita hut is located), and about whose relationship there was a lot of gossip. Yet, even today, everything is shrouded in the utmost secrecy. There are no documents, letters, stories. She will return to her “refuge” even after the fallduring a crossing from Gressoney to Zermatt, of Peccoz on the Grenz glacier. As if to reiterate that his corner of freedom was still safe.
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