Architects and Kings in Grand Tour Europe

At the beginning of the eighteenth-century, in most European countries, the post of royal architect was conferred by rulers based upon subjective artistic and professional criteria, without making exceptions for gender or nationality. In France and Great Britain, however, the premiere architecte du roi and the Surveyor of the King’s Works were chosen within ingrained systems that were part of their respective political systems, essentially inaccessible to foreigners, including the Italian architects and workforce that fueled a centuries-old migration to the rest of Europe. And it is from the point of view of two famous Italian architects, Alessandro Galilei and Filippo Juvarra, that this essay opens a perspective onto the role of court architect in Europe of the Grand Tour.