The text is complemented by a series of splendid photographs that together offer the reader a visit through space and time to the most famous palaces of the world where the lives of royal families and their courts burned bright and where beauty was mixed with power.

Built to astonish and to celebrate the magnificence of the most powerful families in the world,royal palaces and houses are the consequences of an age in which the splendour and opulence of a prince or a people could be measured by the dcor of a salon, by the grandeur of a building or the originality of a fountain.Suspended between the sky and the earth, as occurred in the Far East, or solidly rooted to the ground, as was the norm in Europe, the house of the monarch has always been the meeting point of two minds: that of the master, who saw in his house the expression of his power and creativity,and that of the architect and teams of craftsmen who built it for him, often creating a noble monument rather than a place to live. The flow of the greatest painters, sculptors and architects of the world that passed through these palaces permitted the growth and diffusion of their artistic techniques and philosophies.

But apart from being works of art, these residences were also places to live and they still preserve the traces of the most important people in history: in the salons of the Castle of Fontainebleau, the corridors of the Royal Palace of Caserta, the courtyards of the Royal Palace of Bangkok and the gardens of Topkapi Palace, the most famous rulers walked, rested, loved and made their crucial decisions.This book tells of the mysteries and legends of the buildings and the official and secret versions of the history of their occupants. The text is complemented by a series of splendid photographs that together offer the reader a visit through space and time to the most famous palaces of the world where the lives of royal families and their courts burned bright and where beauty was mixed with power.

INTERODUCTION

SPLENDORS AND MEMORIES OF THE COURTS OF EURROPE

ITALY

SPAIN

PORTUGAL

GREAT BRITAIN

BELGIUM

THE NETHERLANDS

GERMANY

AUSTRIA

HUNGARY

CAECHREPUBLIC

POLAND

DENMARK

NORWAY

SWEDEN

RUSSIA

MAGNIFICENCE AND POWER IN THE ORIENTAL PALACES

TURKEY

INDIA

CHINA

THAILAND