After the fire of 1734, which com­plete­ly destroyed the pre­vi­ous palace (which stood on the site of an Arab cas­tle), it was decid­ed to build a new build­ing sim­i­lar to Ver­sailles. Con­struc­tion began under the direc­tion of the Ital­ian archi­tect Fil­ip­po Juvar­ra, and after his death was con­tin­ued by Gio­van­ni Bat­tista Sac­chet­ti, Saba­ti­ni and Ven­tu­ra. Con­struc­tion last­ed from 1738 to 1764. The first king to live in the palace was Charles III. :Cur­rent­ly, the roy­al fam­i­ly does not live in the palace, which is used for pro­to­col events. Some of the rooms and the roy­al armory are open to the pub­lic: you can admire the tapes­try, peri­od fur­ni­ture, porce­lain pan­els in the porce­lain hall and oth­er roy­al lux­u­ry. Every first Wednes­day of the month (except July and August), at noon at the gates of the palace there is a beau­ti­ful cer­e­mo­ny of the Horse Guards Dres­sage — some­thing like the chang­ing of the guard.