 The institution would be completed many years later due to the Duke's premature death.On January 1, 1678, the Duchess Maria Giovanna Battista of Savoy-Nemours, the state regent, opened the Royal Academy.As such, it is the first military institution of its kind in the world, preceding the Artillery Military Academy in St. Petersburg (1717), the Royal Military Academy (1741) of Woolwich, London, the Ecole Militaire in Paris (1750), and United States Military Academy in West Point (1802).