Seen from the valley road, Sarre is a long white block on a terrace above the Dora Baltea, backed by the wall of the Alps. An older fortified house stands at its core, but the castle owes its identity to Victor Emmanuel II, first king of a united Italy, who acquired it as a base for the hunts he pursued in the high valleys of the Gran Paradiso. From then on the building served the House of Savoy as an alpine residence, and it was remodelled to suit royal use, with a park of tall trees and avenues laid out around it. This first part of a two-part portrait sets the castle in its landscape and its history: the strategic position above the valley, the successive campaigns of building, the arrival of the Savoy and the way a mountain aristocracy of hunters and guides grew up around them. Filmed in 4K with aerial coverage of the valley and the surrounding peaks.
