Villa Carlotta


Villa Carlotta is a villa and botanical garden in Tremezzo on Lake Como in Northern Italy. The villa is today a museum, whose art collection includes works by Canova, Thorvaldsen, Migliara and Hayez in addition to pieces of furniture from the time of the various owners. The villa, whose architect is unknown, was completed in 1745.

History

The Clerici family had risen from rural origins in the northern region of Lake Como to become successful silk merchants due to the efforts of Giorgio and his sons Pietro Antonio, who was made a Marquis, and Carlo who became owner of numerous palaces in Milan and Brianza.
Carlo's son, Milanese marquis Giorgio Clerici became a senator in 1684 and in 1717 he was nominated as President of the Senate. In 1690 he decided to establish a country estate on ancestral lakeside land at Tremezzo. The estate was complete in its initial form by 1695. The garden is first mentioned in 1699.
Upon the death of Giorgio Cerici his great grandson Anton Giorgio Cerici inherited the family fortune and completed the villa in 1745. He died after having dissipated nearly all of his fortune building the Palazzo Clerici in Milan.

Sommariva

In 1801, Anton Giorgio's only daughter, Claudia Caterina Clerici, sold the property to Giovanni Battista Sommariva, a banker and Napoleonic politician who had risen from barber's apprentice to a position of power in Napoleon Bonaparte's government in Northern Italy. In 1802, he was a candidate to be vice president of the Republic of Italy, but Napoleon selected Francesco Melzi d'Eril for the post instead. With his political career thwarted, Sommariva retired from public life and devoted his time to collecting art.
Sommariva modified the villa to bring it in line with early 19th-century taste, adding balconies to take in the lake view and installing a large clock on the facade, He commissioned works from artists, including the sculptors Antonio Canova and Bertal Thorwaldsen, and the painter Francesco Fidanza, whose works feature in the villa today. He built a domed family chapel and a mausoleum near the lake shore, and transformed part of the park into a romantic garden in the English style. The house came for a time to be known as Villa Sommariva.
Because Sommariva's eldest son, Emilio, had died fighting in Spain in 1811, Sommariva's fortune was left to his second son, Luigi. After Luigi's death in 1838, the fortune was divided between his wife, Emilia Sommariva and numerous relatives.

Sachsen Meiningen

In 1843, Princess Marianna, the wife of Prince Albert of Prussia, bought the property for 780,000 lira, ten times the amount paid by Giovanni Sommariva forty years earlier. Emilia Sommariva relocated to a smaller house in Tremezzo, while reserving for herself ownership of the Sommariva family chapel and mausoleum on the grounds of the villa.
In 1847, Princess Marianne gave the property to her daughter Charlotte as a wedding present upon her marriage to Georg II of Saxen-Meiningen Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen. The house was re-named Villa Carlotta, however Charlotte enjoyed the villa for only a few years before she died in 1855 at the age of twenty-three of complications from childbirth.
In 1857, the author Ludwig Bechstein wrote a description of the villa which was published as Villa Carlotta. Poetische Reisebilder vom Comersee und aus den lombardisch-venetianischen Landen.
The Sachsen-Meiningens used the property as a private holiday home. While they didn't make substantial changes to the building, they sold part of the art collection that came with the property. Duke Georg, who had a passion for botany, dedicated himself to the development and enrichment of the garden, introducing a great variety of rare and exotic species. The Duke was a patron of the composer Johannes Brahms, who visited the villa at the Duke's invitation several times in the 1880s. Duke Georg died in 1914 at the outbreak of the World War I.

Public ownership

Once Italy entered World War I in May 1915 on the side of the Allies, the villa despite being owned by a German was not confiscated by the Italian State, as were the properties of other enemy aliens in Italy, but placed under the management of an administrator on 15 August 1915.
The interests of the owners were exercised by the Swiss Consulate.
At the end of World War I, In 1921, the financial administrator of Como Province informed the owners that the entire property was now the property of the Italian state arguing that the villa was of eminent national significance. It was subsequently proposed in 1922 that the villa would be sold at auction. However local enthusiasts lead by Senator Giuseppe Bianchini and the Rotary Club of Milan opposed this, which lead to the villa being entrusted to the care of the Ente Villa Carlotta, a charitable foundation constituted by royal decree on 12 May 1927. This foundation is still responsible for the villa.

Description

The villa and surrounding grounds are located on the lakeshore at Tremezzo, facing the Bellagio peninsula. An Italian garden with steps, fountains and sculptures was laid out at the same time.

The villa

The villa is located at the top of a terraced garden, from which there are views of Bellagio and also the mountains surrounding the lake.
It consists of three floors. The works of art on display are mainly located on the lower floor, while the upper one, which has an elegant gallery, provides views over the lake.
Among the sculptures on display in the villa are:
As well as paintings by Andrea Appiani and Giovanni Migliara there are also:
In addition the villa is home to a collection of more than 470 plaster cameos created by the Roman artist Giovanni Liberotti and a large silk and wool tapestry by François Var der Borght.

The garden

The botanical garden covers an area of about and consists of several different sections. Immediately around the villa, towards the lake, the Italian garden with cut hedges and pergolas with orange and camellia trees. The rhododendron and 150 varieties of azalea spread up the slope. The property is also home to cedars, palms, redwoods, plane trees and other exotic plants. there is also a bamboo garden, covering 3000 m² which is home to over 25 different bamboo species.
A greenhouse which had been used in the past to house citrus fruits during winter has been converted into a museum of old farm tools.