Margaret of Savoy, celebrations for the centenary of her death

From 4 January 2026 the Joint Committee “Margherita 100 – Culture, History and Nation” will be active, promoted and coordinated by the Documentation Center Residenze Reali Lombarde and composed of a network of institutions, museums, foundations and research centers, including the Province of Monza and Brianza, the Villa Reale and Park Consortium of Monza, the State Archives of Milan, the Regional Directorate of National Museums of Lombardy – Chapel Expiatory of Monza and the National University Library of Turin.

The aim of the network is to offer an updated and multidisciplinary reading of the figure of the Queen through a year of initiatives spread across the national territory. The program is structured around three thematic axes: History – Margherita and the Kingdom of Italy between Unification and the early twentieth century; Culture. Patronage, arts, letters and collective imagination.; Nation – The Queen as a symbol of Italian identity. The joint committee obtained the patronage of the Municipality of Monza.

The centenary initiatives will be organized along a dual path, scientific and popular, with the aim of bringing the figure of Margaret of Savoy and the historical, social and artistic context in which she worked back to the center of public attention. The program, managed by the Joint Committee, will be developed throughout 2026 and will be designed to offer in-depth tools to scholars and, at the same time, opportunities for cultural participation for a broad and intergenerational audience.

On a more strictly academic and scientific level, the celebrations will encourage an interdisciplinary dialogue through a conference dedicated to the figure of the Queen and some insights into her libraries, with the aim of bringing together different skills and promoting a new season of historical research. The intent is to create connections between territories, museum institutions, archives, universities and cultural foundations, bringing out aspects that are still little investigated about its public role and its contribution to the cultural debate of the time.

Alongside this trend, the Committee will develop a more informative cultural journey, aimed at the general public, families and children, which will have Margherita’s summer residence in Monza as its fulcrum. A crucial place in the sovereign’s biography, frequented since 1868 and chosen over the years as the true center of her private and institutional life, first as Princess of Piedmont and then as Queen of Italy. The city – and in particular the complex formed by Villa Reale, Gardens and Park – still retains significant traces of its presence today. Here, Margherita not only dedicated herself to court life, but cultivated literary, artistic and scientific interests, leaving a mark that deserves to be rediscovered.

From this perspective, initiatives capable of involving different audiences and leaving lasting traces will take shape, recreating atmospheres and suggestions of the sovereign’s cultural life: a concert that will recall the music performed in the programs promoted by her at the Quirinale Palace, themed dinners dedicated to the taste and style of the Savoy court, cycles of guided tours focused on specific aspects of the royal holiday, as well as readings, informative meetings and moments of in-depth analysis.

Part of these activities may find space in the Expiatory Chapel, a place strongly linked to the memory of Margherita. The Chapel will become the venue for special events, educational activities and knowledge courses, with the aim of enhancing a site rich in historical and symbolic meanings.

Luca Santambrogio, president of the Province of Monza and Brianza, and Massimiliano Longo, delegate councilor of the Villa Reale Consortium, declared: “The Province of Monza and Brianza is pleased to join the Margherita 100 Joint Committee – Culture, History and Nation, a project that enhances the figure of the first Queen of Italy and her connection with our territory. Participating in this network of institutions means contributing to the construction of a shared path of memory and culture, capable of giving back the historical and symbolic significance of Margherita of Savoy to the community. The centenary represents a unique occasion for Brianza, which has always been linked to the figure of the Queen, protagonist of local history as well as national history. We remember in particular her commitment as a woman of culture and patron of her symbolic place, the Royal Palace of Monza which, together with the Park, was the place she chose and loved and which, precisely on the occasion of this busy program of activities, will be the heart of initiatives that combine research, dissemination and participation, to involve citizens and visitors in a year of events of high identity value”.

Paolo Pilotto, mayor and president of the Villa Reale and Park Consortium of Monza, stated: “The city of Monza and the Villa Reale Consortium participate with great interest in the initiatives planned for this anniversary, aware of how much the life and works of Queen Margherita have left indelible marks in the city and within the monumental compendium of the Villa Reale: a legacy of history – without a doubt – but also a testimony of an innovative and modern outlook in the field of arts, literature and the taste for beauty”.

Marina Rosa, president of the Lombard Royal Residences Documentation Centre, underlined: “Our Study Centre, for years committed to the valorisation of the Savoy epic between Milan and Monza, has built a network of bodies and institutions to bring back to the center of the debate a figure who has marked both national history and the story of the Royal Villa of Monza. A residence which Margherita defined as “truly her own home” and which she chose as the summer residence of the Kingdom of Italy. A residence now returned to the public according his taste and his cultural project”.

Giulia Valcamonica, director of the Expiatory Chapel of Monza, explained: “It is on a very hot summer night that Margherita, already the creator of her own myth, draws the myth of the martyr king. Umberto I is assassinated at the hands of the anarchist Gaetano Bresci a few steps from the Villa Reale on the evening of 29 July 1900. Margherita’s first act as widowed queen is to eternalise the memory of her husband in a monument full of symbolism: the Expiatory Chapel is thus located on the exact site of the regicide. The first and only state site in Monza, since 2015 it has been managed by the Regional Directorate of National Museums of Lombardy, the office of the Ministry of Culture. Active participation in the program of activities planned for the Centenary intends to invite citizens to rediscover a place of unexpected richness, a way to rekindle the large alabaster cross that has always characterized it of gold and fire” which has been shining in the Monza sky for over a hundred years with its history, art and culture”.

Finally Marzia Pontone, director of the National University Library of Turin: “The National University Library of Turin, which for years has had in storage a book collection of approximately 13,560 volumes belonging to Margaret of Savoy, inaugurated a permanent exhibition space in 2022, in order to allow the vast public to appreciate the collection in its entirety and discover the literary interests and cultural relationships that the sovereign was able to cultivate over the years of her entire life. The queen’s library in fact bears witness to the eclectic taste of a curious woman, a lover of Italian and European literature, figurative arts, poetry, music and the most innovative aspects of the society of her time, on the occasion of the centenary, the commitment of our Institute will not only offer an unprecedented reinterpretation of this conspicuous book heritage, in dialogue with contemporary art and design, but also actively participate in the promotion of a new season of historical research on the sovereign’s libraries, with particular reference. to the Monza collection”. (by Paolo Martini)