Villa Cicogna Mozzoni

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (October 2007)

Villa Cicogna Mozzoni is a fine example of Italian Lombard Reinassance architecture. It is located near Varese, in the town of Bisuschio.

The Villa was first built by the Mozzoni family in 1400 as a hunting lodge. Given its proximity to the Alps, the area teemed with wildlife. Bears were also present and an important event in the family lore - described below - is tied to an incident involving a bear attack.

The Mozzoni family was a noble Milanese family which had retired to the area around Varese (documents prove their presence in Arcisate and Induno first and then in Bisuschio) after factional struggles between the Della Torre and the Visconti families and their allies. After the Visconti family was replaced by the Sforza, the Mozzoni entered in the graces of the new Milanese ruling family.

In 1476, Galeazzo Maria Sforza visited the Mozzoni for a hunters outing. In that occasion, a large bear (the diary of a participant describes it as weighing 250 lbs.) wounded three hunters and killed a dog. One of the wounded was Agostino Mozzoni. The Duke Galeazzo Maria, grateful for the protection received against the bear, granted Agostino the exaction of taxes for the whole area of Varese, up to an established maximum.

In 1580 the only inheritor of the family name, Angela Mozzoni, married Giovan Pietro Cicogna and founded the current branch of the family which resides in Bisuschio. The family took great care to conserve the Villa in its configuration, including the gardens.

The gardens were ordered by Ascanio Mozzoni in the late 1500s, who took ideas from other estates he visited in his travels. Carlo Cicogna Mozzoni expanded on the garden works.

The entrance of the Villa faces an unpaved parking area. The austere exterior transitions to a frescoed courtyard with images of hunters on horseback and country sceneries. Every inch of the exterior and interior walls is frescoed, breaking the rigid lines of the buildings themselves.

The courtyard forms a U shape, bordering on the open side onto a terraced garden.

In the 17th century, the family added a long stairway of water in a garden adjacent to the house. This waterway is crowned at the top by a small temple, and leads, at the bottom, to a grotto with tunnels.