Arcore (; ) is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Monza and Brianza in the Italian region of Lombardy, about northeast of Milan. It's situated on the banks of River Lambro.
Arcore borders the following municipalities: Usmate Velate, Camparada, Lesmo, Biassono, Vimercate, Villasanta, and Concorezzo.
The oldest documents so far discovered dates back to the 10th century. Arcore, in the Middle Ages, was under the control of the Pieve of Vimercate, and the presence of two monasteries, la Casa delle Umiliate in Sant'Apollinare and the Benedictine monastery of Saint Martin of Tours, is historically documented.
By the 16th century several noble lombard families (Casati, Durini, Giulini, Vismara, D'Adda, Barbò) began to build many important villas usually surrounded by park, the ville di delizia, including the Villa Borromeo-d'Adda, the Villa la Cazzola and the Villa San Martino (the former residence of Silvio Berlusconi).
Another document, from the 13th century, preserved in the State Archive of Milan, confirms the existence of a castrum in vico Arcole. This document was cited in the 19th century by historian and paleographer Giovanni Maria Dozio in Notizie di Vimercate e la sua Pieve,Giovanni Dozio, Notizie di Vimercate e la sua Pieve, G. Agnelli, 1853. where he states
Although no trace of the castle remains today, the Teresian maps of 1722 indicate the current Via Monte Grappa as the Street of the Castle, and in local tradition, the area of the city between Via Abate d'Adda and Via San Gregorio is still referred to as the Castle Zone.
The villa has been completely restored by the municipal administration, which owns it. It actually consists of two distinct villas: the first, dating back to the 1600s, and the second, known as la Montagnola, built about a century later by Abbot Ferdinando D'Adda. The two were unified in the mid-1800s by architect Giuseppe Balzaretto, who redesigned the facades in an eclectic style and designed the approximately 30-hectare park surrounding the complex.
Noteworthy are also the stables and, especially, the Vela Chapel, again commissioned by Balzaretto for Isabella Isimbardi, wife of Marquis Giovanni D'Adda, featuring marble sculptures by Vincenzo Vela (from whom the chapel takes its name).
During these renovations, a grand access avenue was laid out along a perspective axis extending from the square in front of Villa Borromeo, heading west and passing through a sequence of the honor courtyard, central arch of the portico, and corresponding opening in the hall; it then crosses the garden and extends to the Lambro, flanked by a long row of tall poplars.
The perspective axis at the entrance, although now partially interrupted visually by a green patch of trees and shrubs and the surrounding wall, has remained substantially intact over time. After the Giulini's modifications, the villa passed to the in the first half of the 19th century due to the marriage of Anna Giulini Della Porta (1818–1883) to Camillo Casati (1805–1869), and by the end of the same century, it came to the Casati Stampa di Soncino branch. Count Alessandro Casati (1881–1955), who lived there until his death, expanded the library and frequently hosted his friend Benedetto Croce.
Upon the count's death, the property went to his nephew, the closest relative, Marquis Camillo Casati Stampa di Soncino (1927–1970), who lived there intermittently. After Camillo's suicide on 30 August 1970 40 years later on screen, the Casati murder. The intrigues of Marchesa Fallarino and her lovers – Casati, Rome, Parioli, 1970, scandal, sex, transgression, murder... In the salon of the red-light triangle – LASTAMPA.it... after murdering his wife Anna Fallarino and her companion Massimo Minorenti, the property passed to Anna Maria Casati Stampa di Soncino, born in Rome on 22 May 1951,Marco Travaglio and Elio Veltri, L'odore dei soldi (see Elio Veltri and Marco Travaglio – L'Odore dei soldi ) the daughter of the Marquis from his first marriage (with Letizia Izzo). The young woman, then nineteen years old (and thus a minor according to the law at that time), was placed under the guardianship of Giorgio Bergamasco, with Cesare Previti as pro-guardian.
On 26 July 1972 Bergamasco was appointed Minister for Relations with Parliament in the second Andreotti government; meanwhile, Casati Stampa had already emancipated from guardianship upon turning twenty-one on 22 May 1972. Subsequently, Anna Maria Casati Stampa, who had married Count Pierdonato Donà dalle Rose, moved with her husband to Brazil, and her Italian legal representative was her former pro-guardian Cesare Previti. Pressed by financial needs and having inherited not only family assets but also significant tax arrears from her father, Anna Maria Casati Stampa di Soncino in Donà dalle Rose decided in 1973 to sell the villa and appointed her lawyer, Cesare Previti, as broker. The villa was eventually sold in 1974—at a price much lower than its assessed value—to Milanese entrepreneur and future Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who lived there until his death in June 2023. After his death, Marta Fascina resides in Villa San Martino.
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