Villa Melzi d'Eril is located
Bellagio's village on
Lake Como, was built between 1808 and 1810 and designed by
Giocondo Albertolli for
Francesco Melzi d'Eril,
Duke of Lodi and vice president of the
Cisalpine Republic, today it's owned by Gallarati Scotti family and has been declared as a national monument along the surrounding properties.
The villa was
Duke Melzi's summer home and in time it has been decorated with great artists works as Albertolli's, the bronze sculptor
Luigi Manfredini, the sculptors
Antonio Canova,
Pompeo Marchesi e Gian Battista Comolli, and the painters
Giuseppe Bossi and
Andrea Appiani.
Today inside
the building, unfortunately not open for visitors, there are still many precious furnishings on the ceiling of the
Honour Hall, in the library, in the dining room and in the poolroom.
The facade of
Villa Melzi is simple but enriched by a double flight stairs of Azaleas, and the large semicircular terrace adorned with Meleagro and
Apollo's statues, a
Guglielmo della Porta work.
You can't miss the beautiful gardens of the villa designed by the botanist
Luigi Villoresi, in collaboration with
Architect Luigi Canonica, which have been created with the construction of large retaining walls that divide them into several parts, each one with its own characteristics and decorated with ancient statues.
Characteristic imprint is a water-lilies pool of the "oriental garden," the
Etruscan cinerary urn of the third century BC, the two
Egyptian sculptures of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasty, the kiosk in
Moorish style facing
Dante and Beatrice's monument and at the inside busts of the emperors of
Austria Ferdinand,
Marianne of
Savoy and of the Duke Lodovico
Malzi with his wife, and then the beautiful and rare exotic plants, ancient trees, azaleas forests, camellias hedges and giant rhododendrons.
Then visit the museum, once the orangery of the villa, originally used as greenhouse were citrus trees were protected over the winter months, there are archeological finds and some frescoes, the
Chapel, always designed by Albertolli, there are funeral monuments of
Francesco Melzi and Ludovico Melzi, and near the altar there's Statue of
Redeemer of GB Comolli's.
- published: 01 Aug 2010
- views: 11592