Villa Della Porta Bozzolo

About the museum

The villa was built in the sixteenth century by the notary Giroldino de Portu, founder of the Della Porta family, as a country house with outbuildings, a cellar and a silk mill for silkworms. In the second half of the seventeenth century it was enlarged with a courtyard of honour and an elegant garden. In the eighteenth century Gian Angelo III Della Porta transformed it into a refined holiday residence. The interiors were frescoed between 1724 and 1726 in a Rococo idiom, from the ballroom to the Galleria of the piano nobile, populated with mermaids, nymphs, tritons and allegories of the virtues.

The garden develops over four terraces linked by a staircase with balustrades, statues and fountains. The route culminates in the “Teatro” (Theatre), a lawn framed by a fishpond of 1723, with perspective effects that reach as far as the Belvedere hill. Of the old country house remain the Caminata (the room with the great fireplace), the old kitchen and the old wine press.

In 1884 the villa was bought by Senator Camillo Bozzolo, a doctor, researcher and Garibaldian, who spent long summers in Casalzuigno. After his death a slow decline followed, until its rebirth with the donation to the FAI by the Bozzolo heirs in 1989 and the subsequent restoration. Many furnishings have been lost, but the eighteenth-century canopy beds and the library of over two thousand volumes survive, including sixteenth-century books by Bembo and Petrarch and the Encyclopédie of 1779.

Highlights

• Interiors frescoed between 1724 and 1726 in the Rococo style
• Ballroom and the Galleria of the piano nobile with mermaids, nymphs and tritons
• Four-terraced Italian garden with the “Teatro” and the 1723 fishpond
• Library with over two thousand volumes and sixteenth-century books
• Eighteenth-century canopy beds
• Silk mill, silkworm rearing and outbuildings of the old country house

Permanent exhibition

• Villa e giardino storici – Route through the frescoed Rococo interiors and the library of the villa, with the terraced Italian garden leading to the “Teatro” and the fishpond.

Founded

1500

Operated by

FAI – Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano

Visitors per year

approx. 27,362

Admission & discounts

The ticket for a free visit of the villa and park includes the audio guide, which can be downloaded onto your phone. Free admission for FAI members, INTO members, Mécènes and Bienfaiteurs Amis du Louvre members and accredited journalists. Prices may vary during events. Tickets online on the FAI website.

Accessibility

• Partially wheelchair accessible
• Elevator: not available
• Accessible restroom
• Accessible parking
• Service dogs welcome
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials: no information
• Audio description: no information

The villa and park are partly accessible. The ticket office is reached from the car park along a sloping road. The path to the villa's parterre is cobbled and sloping, but the ground floor is also accessible from the entrance at via Libertà 18. The upper floor can only be reached by stairs, and some parts of the park only by steps. The Filanda (silk mill) is reached by a route without changes of level. Accessible toilets are next to the ticket office, and wheelchairs and folding stools are available at the ticket office. On request and on set dates, sensory guided tours are offered. Guide dogs and assistance dogs are allowed both in the park and in the villa.

Kids & families

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Getting there & parking

By car: A8 Milan–Varese motorway towards Sesto Calende–Gravellona Toce, Vergiate–Sesto exit, towards Besozzo–Laveno; after Gemonio continue via Valcuvia–Luino to Casalzuigno.

Amenities & dining

• Café
• Restaurant
• Museum shop

Restaurant and café service at weekends from late March, with a break in July and August and resumption from September to November. FAI shop with gifts, books and food products; picnic area.

Events & venue rental

• Spaces for rent

The FAI offers the villa for events, as indicated in the dedicated section of the website.

Plan your visit