Before becoming a model and then a renowned singer, Carla Bruni spent her childhood in an unusual setting. With her parents, Alberto and Marisa Bruni Tedeschi, as well as her sister Valérie, the wife of Nicolas Sarkozy grew up in the Castagnato Po castle, perched in the Piedmontese hills near Turin. In neo-Gothic, Baroque and Renaissance style from the 18th century, the residence, made up of 40 rooms, has an area of 1,500 square meters. Built on an estate of more than 100 hectares, it is surrounded by vast forests and lush parks. From a very young age, Carla Bruni was immersed in an artistic atmosphere since, according to information from La Tribune Sundayon September 29, the walls were covered with works of art. The singer then grew up in a veritable private museum. “Carla’s father developed the family collection. Furniture, objects, paintings, the cultivated man buys a lot”, notes the newspaper. “An existential passion” for the art he shares with his wife.
The castle was not only a place of residence, since musicians, writers and thinkers came there regularly, such as Visconti or Karajan. A setting that undeniably influenced his taste for art, music and culture. Carla Bruni has also recalled several times with nostalgia about her childhood in this Italian castle where she spent the first years of her life. Unfortunately, in 1975, she and her family were forced to reluctantly leave the castle that her father had acquired in the early 1950s, due to the threat from the Italian far-left terrorist organization the Brigades. red. Carla Bruni and her parents therefore took with them some “paintings and works of art” to come and settle in Paris. However, this residence left an indelible mark on the career of Giulia’s mother. In the French capital, she immerses herself in the memories of her Piedmontese childhood as soon as she observes the paintings of the past that decorate her house.
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Carla Bruni: the castle where the singer grew up put up for sale
In 2009, after several decades in the Bruni Tedeschi family, Castagneto Po Castle was put up for sale. This decision, although difficult, marked the end of an era for the family. According to the Italian daily The Pressit would have been sold to a rich prince of the Arab world for the sum of 9 million euros. Before putting it up for sale, Alberto Bruni Tedeschi’s rich collections of furniture, antiques, paintings, tapestries and ceramics were sold at auction at Sotheby’s in London for more than 18 million euros for the benefit of the Virginio Bruni Foundation. A castle and its artistic decor which seem only a distant memory for Carla Bruni.
Photo credits: OLIVIER BORDE / BESTIMAGE
