Villa d'Este (Cernobbio)
The Villa d'Este (original name Villa del Garovo ) is a stately Renaissance residence on the west bank of Lake Como in the municipality of Cernobbio . The villa and the park of 25 hectares, although significantly changed over time, preserve a good impression of the original structure when the villa was still the summer residence of the Cardinal of Como. The building complex has been converted into a luxury hotel since 1873 .
history
The bishop of Como Gerardo Landriani had a nunnery built directly on the Garovo stream in 1442. Notarial deeds show that in 1557 the brothers Marco and Tolomeo Gallio acquired a plot of land with buildings (presumably the monastery of Sant'Andrea) from Giovan Antonio Benzi in the Garovo district. Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio later commissioned the renowned painter and architect Pellegrino Tibaldi to build a residence for his personal use. The Villa del Garovo was built together with the magnificent gardens between 1565 and 1570 and while the cardinal lived there, the villa became a vacation home for politicians, intellectuals and clergy. After Gallio's death, the villa remained in his family's possession but was not maintained for many years. From 1749 to 1769 the villa was used by the Jesuits as a center for spiritual retreats . Then it was first acquired by Count Mario Odescalchi , who sold it to a Count Marliani in 1778. In 1784 the property changed hands to the Calderara family from Milan, who subjected it to extensive restoration. A new garden in the Italian style ("all'italiana") was laid out and a nymphaeum was built in it. Starting from the Nymphaeum, the Viale dell'Ercole (or Viale di Ercole ) rises , an avenue lined with cypress trees and water cascades that leads to a group of figures from the 18th century; this shows Hercules , as he Lichas hurled into the sea.
After the duel death of Marchese Bartolomeo Calderara, his widow Victoria Peluso married the Napoleonic general Count Domenico Pino on June 25, 1808 . Under her stage name “La Pelusina” she was once a famous ballerina at La Scala in Milan . In his honor she had a small fortress with turrets built in the garden. Due to the immense gambling debts and extravagance of her husbands, she was forced to sell the property in 1815.
1815-1873
From 1815 to 1820 the villa was the residence of Caroline von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel , the Princess of Wales, who was unhappily married to the later King of England George IV and lived separately from him. At the notarial certification on July 17, 1815, she was represented by Alessandro Volta . The villa was renamed Nuova Villa d'Este (New Villa d'Este), alluding to the famous Villa d'Este in Tivoli, and the park was completely redesigned in the English style. Although the name might initially suggest this, there is no direct reference to the Este family , one of the oldest noble families in Italy.
The villa was acquired by the Torlonia princes in 1820 ; In 1825 they hosted the Austrian Emperor Franz I here. In 1829 the property was sold to Prince Domenico Orsini , who in turn sold it to Baron Ippolito Ciani from Milan in 1834. In 1860 the new owner organized a costume party for patriots who had returned to Italy from all over the world. The villa was rented for two years from 1868 as a residence to Dagmar of Denmark , the Russian Grand Duchess and later Tsarina Maria Fedorowna.
modification
Finally, the villa was converted into a luxury hotel in 1873, where the European nobility and the rich bourgeoisie met from then on. By now the name Villa d'Este had established itself.
In the period after the Second World War, the noble hotel became a meeting place for sophisticated society again and was the scene of the famous Bellentani criminal case, which received the greatest response in the contemporary press. Countess Pia Bellentani shot her lover Count Carlo Sacchi on September 15, 1948 , was declared insane and sentenced to ten years in prison.
present
The Grand Hotel Villa d'Este is now a luxury hotel and venue for high-level events. The Bilderberg Conference took place here in 1965 and 1987, and the Ambrosetti Workshop has been held annually in the hotel since 1975, each time a meeting of representatives from politics, international finance and industry. On September 1, 1929, shortly before the Great Depression , a competition for the most interesting new developments in the automotive sector was held for the first time in the villa gardens. The Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este goes back to a joint initiative of the Como Automobile Club, the Grand Hotel Villa d'Este and the Comitato di Cura di Como . Today the event has developed into one of the most important classic car meetings , which has been held annually in spring since 2000 under the patronage of the BMW Group Classic .
The “Grand Hotel Villa d'Este” was voted the best hotel in the world in the 6/2009 issue of the US travel magazine Forbes Traveler .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The usual crime stories . In: Der Spiegel . No. 41 , 1948 ( online - Oct. 9, 1948 ).
- ↑ http://de.lhw.com/property.aspx?propertyid=147 The Leading Hotels of the World
- ↑ http://www.ambrosetti.eu/english/forum_villa_d_este.php?iExpandP=49 Forum Villa d'Este
- ↑ Villa d'Este on Lake Como ( Memento of November 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 45 ° 50 ′ 41.9 " N , 9 ° 4 ′ 47.6" E