While Charles X had taken up residence in the Palazzo Coronini, his son, Louis-Antoine, Duke of Angoulême, who in 1799 had married his cousin Maria Teresa Carlotta, the only surviving daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, had settled in the Palazzo Strassoldo, in Piazza Sant'Antonio.

With them were also their two young nephews, Henri, Count of Chambord, the heir apparent to the throne of France, and his sister Louise-Marie, children of Charles X's second son, the late Duke of Berry.

In the eyes of the French who visited the royals, such as the Viscount of La Rochefoucauld, the building, which overlooked “a melancholy and badly paved square, surrounded by sad arches and little houses with narrow porticoes”, seemed more like “the home of a citizen who had retired from commerce” than that of a king.

In Gorizia, where they lived until 1844, the royal family led an austere and unrestrained life, punctuated by receptions held twice a week, open to the Gorizia aristocracy and French residents or visitors. In the garden behind the palace, young Henry devoted himself every morning to target shooting and the military arts that were part of his education, while in the early afternoons he went out for long walks in the surrounding countryside.