Villa Della Porta Bozzolo

The Villa Della Porta Bozzolo is a former country estate dating from the 16th century, which was later converted into the country seat of Northern Italian noble families. The villa has a large park, farm buildings and a stately main house with a cycle of frescoes in the Rococo style of the 17th to 18th centuries. It is located in Casalzuigno in the province of Varese, and can be visited. Since 1989 it is owned by the FAI - Fondo Ambiente Italiano, the Italian Foundation for Heritage and environmental protection.

History

The villa was built from a pre-existing core buildings of the 16th century in the possession of the noble notary Giroldino Porta family. The first important modifications learned the villa at the beginning of the 18th century by Gian Angelo Della Porta III ( 1690-1745 ) in the context of his marriage to Isabella Giulini, daughter of Count Giorgio Giulini, an ancestor of Milan's historian Giulini, in the year 1711th the idea to extend the main axis of the garden parallel to the inner facade of the house (instead of the then customary arrangement, according to which the main axis of the garden should be parallel to the salons to divide it into two symmetrical parts ) probably originated by the architect Antonio Maria Porani. In the later 18th century, Villa received a huge Italian garden with stairs, fountains, water features and a frescoed shrine. The Della Porta family sold the villa in the 19th century. First, they acquired the family Carpani, this sold in 1861 to the family Richini and they in turn sold to the Bozzolo family in 1877. They remained in the hands of Bozzolo family who donated the FAI in 1989, which made publicly available and the villa restored.

Description

The exterior of the villa is characterized by its simple elegance, clean lines and decorations in muted colors. The interior, however, is characterized by a lively trompe - d'oeil - painting the walls with landscapes and perspective gimmicks in the style of Rococo. The decor is true to the original from the 17th to 18th centuries. The two-story main building of the villa is divided into different salons, bedrooms, billiard room, library and kitchen. The most striking element is certainly the huge garden in the Baroque style, which is a masterpiece of landscape architecture with a large variety of plants and flowers, a rose garden, agricultural buildings of the villa and various architectural elements. The garden refers architecturally the entire hill, the villa is located at the foot. A monumental staircase and four terraces leading up to his summit with the Belvedere on the Valcuvia. The stairs, balustrades and statues are made Viggiù stone. There is also a small secret garden ( giardino segreto ), with a tree-lined avenue that leads to a frescoed shrine. In addition to the stables you can still find other restored buildings formerly agricultural use: the ice house, a monumental wine press from the 16th century ( the largest in the whole of Lombardy ), an oil press, a silk mill and wine cellar.

Bibliography

• Paola Paola Bassani - Cassani, Interni Lombard del settecento. Villa Della Porta Bozzolo a Casalzuigno, Milano 1994
• Andrea Spiriti, Cultura figurativa in Valcuvia. Villa della Porta Bozzolo a Casalzuigno, Milano 1996
• L. Borromeo Dina (Ed. ), Villa Della Porta Bozzolo, Milano 2008
• L. Borromeo Dina (Ed.), Il libro del FAI, Milano 2005, pp. 129-143
• Edoardo Villata, Magatti ticinese, vecchio e nuovo, from " Arte & Storia ", 8 Jahrg, No. 43, Lugano 2009