History
Among the most beautiful and majestic Villas of delight, Villa Arconati is located in Castellazzo di Bollate, just 12 km from the center of Milan. Its park, one of the most beautiful historic gardens in Lombardy - already known in the eighteenth century thanks to the engravings of Marc'Antonio Dal Re - is today a place of confrontation with contemporary culture - with its social, musical and artistic events, but also an ideal space for relive past atmospheres with shady tree-lined avenues, refreshing ponds and sculptures. Among its treasures they are the magnificent Theater of Diana with its restored water features, the Fountain of the Dolphin, the Theater of Andromeda, the Great Theater and the Theater of Hercules, the labyrinth of hornbeams and the French Parterre decorated with an eighteenth-century motif.
The noble floor houses some of the most richly decorated rooms: the Sala di Fetonte with the eighteenth-century trompe l'oeil fresco by the Galliari Brothers - the first set designers of the Teatro La Scala - the Ballroom with elegant Lombard baroque stuccos and gilding, the Sala della Caccia, the parade apartment with the splendid Sala Rosa, the wing of the ladies with the mysterious Alcove and the private chapel.
On the ground floor, the Sala Rossa - with its imposing fireplace and late 19th-century neo-Renaissance atmosphere - and the Sala del Museo, dominated by the statue of Tiberius, traditionally interpreted as the effigy of Pompey the Great, are certainly worth a visit. The Armory and the Library - which still preserves an ancient fund of about 2000 volumes - are very interesting. The Stables are also suggestive, set up on the basis of the ideal Leonardesque stable, with the fountain of the God Neptune. This year - for the first time - the Gabinetto dell'Aurora with the oldest fresco in the Villa, and the Funeral Chamber of Gaston de Foix rebuilt in collaboration with the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, will be open to the public.
Thanks to the enhancement promoted by the Augusto Rancilio Foundation, the Villa and its Garden take on new life, to represent a point of reference and attraction for the cultural, creative and sustainable development of the Milanese area.
