Villa Melzi

Villa Melzi in Bellagio

Villa Melzi is half-way between Loppia and the Borgo of Bellagio (the village), Architect Giocondo Albertonelli designed the villa in 1808 upon the commission of Francesco Melzi d'Eril. The villa was finished in 1810, but the establishment of the vast park and the furnishing of the halls required a few more years.

The villa was planed with simple, severe, neo-classical lines. Inside the work of Architect Albertonelli mainly, with neo-classic style decorations which enrich each room of the building, besides the work of Albertonelli, must be pointed out the team of upholsters, painters, and sculptors of the highest national level, among whom we remember Alessandro Sanquirico who frescoed the dining room with Lombardy landscapes, the other rooms were frescoed by Lavelli, Arregoni and Trivaglio, among the numerous works there are canvases by Appiani and sculptures by Canova.

Of no less importance than the villa is the park, the first example of an English garden in Lario. The garden was realised with great care, levelling terrain or building small hills with the goal of making the park seem larger than its true dimensions, among the garden's trees are scattered Egyptian, Etruscan-Roman, Renaissance and neo-classical sculptures.

The construction of the park required the suppression of the antique road between the village and Saint Giovanni following the lake shore, a choice that did not find favour with the citizens of Bellagio, because it impeded their access along the road that runs along the lake shore. Stendhal wrote many pages about the villa; the pianist and compositor Franz Liszt loved being in Villa di Melzi's park, in the Moorish kiosk facing the Lake, and most likely the statues of Dante and Beatrice which inspired him to compose the Sonata a Dante.

The Villa Melzi Gardens are open at March to October, every day, hour 09:30 to 18:30.
For more information Tel. +39 333 4877427.