View of the gardens of Villa Della Porta Bozzolo

Villa Della Porta Bozzolo is a

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...

located at

Casalzuigno Casalzuigno (''Casàl Sciuìgn'' in lombard) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Varese in the Italian region Lombardy, located about northwest of Milan and about northwest of Varese. Casalzuigno includes the Villa Della Porta Bo ...

in the

province of Varese The province of Varese () is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Varese (population of 80,857 inhabitants), but its largest city is Busto Arsizio. The headquarters of AgustaWestland, the compa ...

, northern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It was donated by the heirs of the Italian senator and pathologist

Camillo Bozzolo Camillo Bozzolo (May 30, 1845 – February 28, 1920) was an Italian physician who was a native of Milan. In 1868 he received his medical doctorate from the University of Pavia, and afterwards continued his studies in Austria and Germany at th ...

to the

Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano The Fondo Ambiente Italiano (FAI) is the National Trust of Italy. The organisation was established in 1975 as the Fondo Ambiente Italiano, based on the model of the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, National Trus ...

—the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

of Italy—who now manage it.

History

It was built in the 16th century and used as a rural villa and later an aristocratic residence. In the 18th century an impressive

Italian garden Italian garden (or giardino all'italiana, ) typically refers to a style of gardens, wherever located, reflecting a number of large Italian Renaissance gardens which have survived in something like their original form. In the history of gardenin ...

was added with stairs, fountains, water features and an

aedicula In religion in ancient Rome, ancient Roman religion, an ''aedicula'' (: ''aediculae'') is a small shrine, and in classical architecture refers to a Niche (architecture), niche covered by a pediment or entablature supported by a pair of columns an ...

decorated with

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

es. Around the villa there are interesting rustic elements, such as a representation of an olive press containing a cycle of

rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

frescoes from the workshop of

Pietro Antonio Magatti Pietro Antonio Magatti (20 June 1691 – 26 September 1767) was an italy, Italian painter, active in Lombardy in a late-Baroque (''barocchetto'') style. Born in Varese, known for paintings and frescoes in his hometown, Milan, Pavia, Como, as w ...

, a painter from

Varese Varese ( , ; or ; ; ; archaic ) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 was 80,559. It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or exurban part ...

. At the end of the 17th century the villa experienced one of its most important transformations on the initiative of Gian Angelo Della Porta III on the occasion of his marriage to Isabella, daughter of Count Giorgio Giulini. With the assistance of architect Antonio Maria Porani, he set the main axis of the garden parallel to the side of the house—thus contravening the classic rules under which the principal axis must be aligned with the main room of the house, dividing the garden into two symmetrical parts. In 1723, he also built an elaborate fountain cascading from terraces in the hillside, designed by the architect Pellegatta.Lombardia Beni Culturali
entry on villa and gardens, by Robert Ribaudo and Simonetta Coppa (2011).

References

{{Coord, 45.9068, N, 8.7122, E, source:wikidata, display=title Fondo Ambiente Italiano Della Porta Bozzolo Houses completed in the 18th century Gardens in Lombardy