Villa Melzi is one of the main attractions of Lake Como.
It was built between 1808 and 1810 for a friend and loyal associate of Napoleon, the Vice-President of the Italian Republic, Duke Francesco Melzi D’Eril. The villa, built in the then prevailing neoclassical style, was intended to match the prestige of this eminent statesman.
The Viceroy and Napoleon’s stepson Eugene Beauharnais and his wife, the Russian Empress Maria Feodorovna, the Austrian Emperors Francis I and Ferdinand all visited these walls. Stendhal wrote some pages of his book “Rome, Florence, Naples” here, composer Franz Liszt spent one of the most romantic periods of his life here. He loved to come here with his beloved Marie and read aloud “The Divine Comedy” in the shadow of the monument to Dante, which still stands here today; later he would write his Sonata to Dante based on these memories.
The villa itself, still inhabited today, is closed to the public. But the magnificent garden, the true beauty and pride of Bellagio, is open to guests. The garden is right up to the waters of the lake, which is rare on these precipitous shores, and this gives it a special charm. A shady Japanese-style garden with a lake over which brightly coloured dragonflies dance, century-old sequoias and Montezuma pines, a pool of bright pink lilies and other picturesque spots open up to our enchanted gaze like a kaleidoscope.
With many sculptures scattered around the garden, we would particularly like to highlight the evidence of ancient Egyptian civilisation brought here by Napoleon’s conquests. A statue of the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet gazing into the waters of a glacial lake, and this unusual combination does not cut the eye, but reeks of ancient harmony.
The former greenhouse houses a small museum with archaeological artefacts, Renaissance frescoes and some items from the Napoleonic era. Among them, for example, are the keys to Milan given by the local authorities to Napoleon who entered the city.
The small chapel with the tomb of the Melzi family is very interesting, with sculptural works by the most recognised masters of the IXX century. The outer wall of the chapel is decorated with a door portal from the family’s mansion in Milan, a work traditionally attributed to the Renaissance genius Donato Bramante (Donatello).
A curious detail: Duke Melzi’s ancestor, also Francesco Melzi, was one of Leonardo da Vinci’s favourite pupils, and was under the maestro until his death. It was to him that Leonardo bequeathed all his priceless manuscripts.
Runs from March to November
