Full Description

Location

The southern country of the province of Brescia has been inhabited since the Roman times and is characterized by the cultivation of cereals, vines and olive trees. In this district you can see country-towns and villages keeping up their historical flavours, with small cathedrals or country churches, castles and luxury mansions, as well as perfectly preserved farming houses, offering a complete photograph of the urban and social history of this rich district. Besides, the folklore life displayed in food feasts and other popular festivals, associated with the calendar of the agricultural cultivations, has stimulated in recent years a quite good approval in not only local tourists.

The mansion is situated in a totally rural village, about ten kms from the tollbooth gate of the A21 which connects it to Milan (80 Kms), the beautiful medieval centre of Bergamo (45 kms), the lake Garda (35 kms), and the city of Cremona (45 kms), while it is connected to the chief-town of Brescia (20 kms) by means of the province road nearby (3 kms).

The international connection is very good, too. Montichiari airport is at 15 kms, Bergamo Orio al Serio and Verona Catullo airports, at one hour distance, connect the area to important cities of Central, Western and Eastern Europe. Milano Linate (90 kms) and Milano Malpensa (180 kms) are the biggest airports in Northern Italy, with international flights. 

Description of buildings

The whole building is composed of two parts, the main mansion and the farm-house.

The main mansion consists of the seventeenth-century villa built with red bricks, the facade being marked by lines of baked clay borders. A cobble-stoned slope overpassing a brooklet leads to the big embossed main entrance door opening on a south-ward porch, with three arches of vault roof resting on four marble columns. The porch faces an elegant garden of roses, surrounded by an ancient little wall that separates it from the rest of the large park.

Another entrance way, for pedestrians, passes through a fenced garden on the northern side of the whole villa, facing the central little square where you can see the church of the small village.

Finally, a wide entrance crosses the park with a gravelly path leading to a central courtyard between the main and the farm areas, passing among magnolias, rose bushes and cedars, some of which are hundred years old.

In the main villa you can see, on the ground floor, three wide rooms with doors opening on the porch, bathroom and kitchen. All the ceilings are shaped in vaults and big brackets, fully covered with frescoes and plasters with oriental and flower motives of the 19th century. The floors are wholly made of original baked paving tiles of the 17th century, both on the ground floor and upstairs, except one room that has an ancient inlaid parquet, set off by a 19th century grand piano. Some beautiful fireplaces in various ancient marbles heat each room, kitchen and upper rooms. Moreover a central heating system with radiators assures the interior warmth of the villa. The kitchen, perfectly usable, is fitted with an ancient marble sink dating from the 14th century.

A Botticino stone staircase with small vaults takes up to the first floor, with six rooms having decorated ceilings, a bathroom and a southward gallery with wooden beam ceiling. Furthermore, the staircase takes up to an attic(min. height 2.60 ms) with bricks and wooden beams on view, lighted and ventilated by means of small elliptic windows, that if restructured, would be habitable. Finally, the villa has a large cellar, with vaulted ceiling, measuring one half of the ground projection of the villa, while the attic occupies the whole covered area.

In general, the southward orientation and the thick ancient walls offer a good lighting both in summer and in winter and, at the same time, keep an absolutely pleasant temperature throughout the year.

On the east of the main villa, forming an architectonic continuity, is the rural house, having a dwelling at present occupied by the custodians, composed of a kitchen and a wide living-room on the ground floor, and two bedrooms on the first floor; four more rooms are habitable, but till now used to store up goods more than for family life.

A very broad open gallery on the first floor and a wide porch under it, with some boxes for horses, offer a lot of room for any use whatever, with walls on the north and west sides. 

Condition

The general state of preservation is very good.