The Historical Background
The Castle of the Counts of Biandrate at San Giorgio Canavese was originally a series of buildings, most of which were built during medieval times for defensive purposes; over the centuries, the building has been radically transformed in line with changing requirements.
Old paintings show a castle with enormous towers, structured into a series of buildings of varying sizes and facing in different directions, perched on the bastions dominating the town. The impressive bulk of the castle's outline today still proudly recalls these ancient feudal times.
The Bishops of Vercelli and Ivrea, the Marquis of Monferrato and perhaps even the Templars ruled over the castle at various times until, in the 13th century, it finally passed into the hands of the Counts of Biandrate.
The Room of the Pomegranates forms part of the apartment known as "Chatel d'argent" and is named after the pomegranates that - together with other fruits and plants, such as cocoa, strawberries and cloves - decorate the tapestry painted on the walls to simulate a fabulously rich fabric.
The polychrome ceiling is attractively decorated with an extraordinary variety of scrolls, in the form of acanthus leaves, ornamental motifs, furs and small landscapes.
This successful combination was the work of Pietro Antonio Pozzo, and it closely resembles the decoration, also by the same artist, on the ceiling of the "salottino" in the western apartment of the Hunting Palace at Stupinigi.
