It is one of the 14 Residences of the Royal House of Savoy built in the area between the 16th and 18th centuries which were collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.

The palace was designed and built from 1675 by Amedeo di Castellamonte, commissioned by Duke Charles Emmanuel II, who needed a base for his hunting expeditions in the heathy hill country north of Turin.

It is noted for its monumental architecture and Baroque interiors by Filippo Juvarra, including the Galleria Grande and its marble decorations, the chapel of Saint Uberto, and its extensive gardens.

The construction of this residence was part of the larger plan of building the so-called "Garland of Delights" (Corona di Delizie), a chain of palaces and leisure residences around Turin, which also included the hunting lodge of Stupinigi, the Castle of Rivoli, the Queen's Villa, and others.In 1658 Charles Emmanuel II commissioned the project to build the palace and a small town around it to the architect Amedeo di Castellamonte,[3] whose father Carlo was the chief architect of Charles Emmanuel I and whose work had popularized Piedmontese Baroque.

The ambitious plan envisioned a grandiose complex including the palace, gardens, hunting woods, and also a new town, with scenic vistas.

It was then further modified with the addition of smaller apartments considered more suitable for privacy compared to the halls and parade chambers of the central area of the palace.

The façade was built with a loggia on the first floor flanked by grand arched entrances, the left one of which was subsequently destroyed during the renovations led by Michelangelo Garove a few decades later.

The entire complex is connected together along the straight axis that cut across the town and reaches the palace, follows the canal, and then leads to the Fountain of Hercules and finally the Temple of Diana in the gardens.

The palace gardens were redesigned to conform to the French formal style, with views and perspectives continuing out to infinity based on the Versailles model, which at the time was considered the ideal royal residence.

Further damage to the complex was inflicted during the 1706 Siege of Turin, when French troops under Louis d'Aubusson de La Feuillade were garrisoned there during the War of the Spanish Succession.

In 1788–89 architects Giuseppe Battista Piacenza [it] and Carlo Randoni created the staircase on the façade of the Palace of Diana, and added decorative elements in line with the neoclassical taste of the time and the style of the new apartments on the first floor, intended for Victor Emmanuel I (1759–1824), putting an end to the architectural evolution of the complex.

[7] In 1792, the Kingdom of Sardinia (which included Piedmont), joined several European powers in the War of the First Coalition against the French First Republic, but by 1796 it was defeated by Napoleon's Army of italy and forced to sign the Treaty of Paris in May, ceding the original Duchy of Savoy and the County of Nice to France, and giving the French Revolutionary Army free passage through Piedmont.

On 6 December 1798 Napoleon's general, Barthélemy Catherine Joubert, occupied Turin and forced Charles Emmanuel IV to abdicate and leave for Sardinia.

Because of lack of funding, the interventions financed by the Ministry of Culture were minimal, with only essential maintenance to preserve the structural integrity of the buildings.

[9] In 1961, to mark the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the unification of Italy, the Great Gallery and the Hall of Diana were briefly restored, albeit in a mostly cosmetic manner.

[7] In the 1960s, a group of locals from Venaria Reale started an association (Coordinamento Venariese per la Tutela e Restauro del Castello) to protect the castle as a cultural landmark, which managed to do some limited restoration work.

On 5 December 1996, the Minister for Culture Walter Veltroni, in agreement with the President of Piedmont Enzo Ghigo, established a special-purpose Committee for Reggia di Venaria, which started the long process of restoration of the palace.

In 1999 the first framework agreement was signed the Ministry of Culture, the Piedmont Region, the City of Turin, and the municipalities of Venaria Reale and Druento.

These include the frescoed vault representing Olympus (work of Jan Miel) which pictures Jupiter offering a gift to Diana, huge equestrian portraits of the dukes and the court (works by various painters in the ducal service), and hunting-themed canvases by Jan Miel, including the Hunt for the Deer, the Hare, the Bear, the Fox, the Boar, the Death of the Deer, the Going to the Woods, the Assembly, the Curea.

Earlier drawings show an Italian garden with three terraces connected by elaborate stairways and architectural features such as a clock tower in the first court, the fountain of Hercules, a theatre and parterres.

The Citroniera consists of a large vaulted gallery (148 meters long, 14 wide, and 16 high) whose ancient function was the winter storage of citrus fruits grown in the gardens.

[15][16] After the death of Garove (1713), Juvarra was commissioned by Victor Amadeus II to build a church dedicated to Saint Hubertus, patron of hunters.

[19] the large high altar, decorated with flying angels supporting a ciborium in the shape of a small temple, and the four statues of the doctors of the church: St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Athanasius and St. John Chrysostom around the central nave.