Product Code Database
Villa Vigoni refers to both a historical property and a non-profit organization in Loveno, a section of Menaggio on Lake Como, Italy. The property, sometimes referred to as Villa Mylius Vigoni, was remodeled in its current form in 1830. The non-profit, also known as the German-Italian Centre for European Dialogue (, ) was established in 1986; it uses the Villa Vigoni property and the nearby Villa Garovaglio Ricci, also referred to simply as Villa Garovaglio.
was a successful businessman born in [[Frankfurt]] who had relocated to [[Milan]] in 1794, and subsequently went by Enrico Mylius. In 1829, he acquired the property as a wedding gift intended for his son Giulio Napoleone and the latter's fiancée Luigia Vitali. In 1830, Mylius hired architect who added a third floor and side wings.
The wedding was delayed by the opposition of Luigia's mother Matilde, of the aristocratic house of Arese, who objected to her daughter marrying a Protestant. Eventually, Giulio and Luigia traveled to Trieste to take advantage of the Kingdom of Illyria's more lenient interreligious marriage practices, but Giulio fell ill and died there a few days after the wedding ceremony. Giulia was subsequently treated by Enrico and Federica Mylius as their daughter, and kept the property.
Giuseppe, Catulla and Ignazio Jr all rest in the nearby cemetery of Loveno di Menaggio, which had been created in 1850 by Enrico Mylius for the permanent burial of his son Giulio, and where he and his wife Friederike rest as well.
Villa Vigoni was the location of several encounters between German and Italian heads of state, such as the meeting of Johannes Rau and Carlo Azeglio Ciampi on , and that of Christian Wulff and Giorgio Napolitano on . Since 2010, Villa Vigoni has hosted an annual seminar dedicated to policy challenges of the euro area.
The English-style garden was rearranged between 1855 and 1865 by Giuseppe Balzaretto. It includes the tempietto or cenotaph of Giulio Mylius, designed by Besia and built in 1831; that structure's interior features two marble slabs depicting the death of Giulio on one side, by Pompeo Marchesi (1832), and Nemesis on the other side, by Bertel Thorvaldsen (1835), complemented with two busts of Giulio and Enrico Mylius, also by Marchesi. The garden has additional sculptures by Giosuè Argenti.
The building known as Villa Garovaglio, standing on the hillside below Villa Vigoni, was first documented in the 18th century when it was probably used as a silk mill by Como-based musician Francesco Pasquale Ricci (1732-1817). In 1760, his sister Maria Giovanna Ricci married Como pharmacist Sante Garovaglio; their son Pasquale (1773-1856) married Rosa Maria Boldrini or Boldroni, from the nearby town of Cantù. In 1872, Pasquale and Rosa's eldest son (1820-1905) commissioned Lodovico Pogliaghi to remodel it, giving it its current shape. Ignazio Vigoni Jr purchased it in 1966 from the Cazzani e Nuvoloni family, out of fear that it might be transformed into a hotel. In the early 1990s, it was complemented with a state-of-the-art conference room designed by German architect .
See also
|
|
