Rediscovering antique crafts

Not far from Turin, I am welcomed by Consolata Beraudo di Pralormo into their family home, Pralormo Castle. She takes me on a guided tour to discover not only the residence and the magnificent park surrounding it, dotted in springtime with a multitude of brightly colored tulips, but also the antique trades and crafts which were once linked to the peasant world but are now almost completely forgotten. The Castle, whose origins date back to the Middle Ages, has been transformed over time into an aristocratic residence thanks to the work of some of the greatest architects of their time. Its current appearance dates back to the nineteenth century when Count Carlo Beraudo di Pralormo, a diplomat and politician, completely transformed the ancestral castle by enlisting the best architect of the time Ernesto Melano and entrusting the garden to landscape architect Xavier Kurten. In addition to the castle, the estate includes a historic park, a flower garden, an Orangerie, an ancient greenhouse for citrus fruits, the Castellana, an imposing rural building, and the farm, which is still to this day managed by the family with a view to preserving the surrounding landscape. In the rooms of the Castle, Consolata Pralormo, describes and shows to me the “Ricamo a Bandera”, a typically Piedmontese embroidery technique which dates back to the early 1700s, and with which sofas, headboards and armchairs were produced for the Piedmontese aristocracy.