Villa Carlotta

• Author Serena Bertolucci
• Testi di Massimo Listri
• Size 21x30,5 cm
• Binding Cartonato con sovraccoperta
• Pages 112
• Illustrations 70
• Year 2013
• ISBN 9788842221418
• Price € 18,00  € 17,10

Residence, museum, park, and botanical garden: a marvel on Lake Como

Villa Carlotta is a place of rare beauty, where masterpieces of nature and human ingenuity coexist in perfect harmony in over 70,000 square metres of gardens and museum facilities open to the public. The residence, imposing but sober, surrounded by an Italian garden with statues, staircases, and fountains, was commissioned in the late 17th century by Giorgio Clerici. With Gian Battista Sommariva, the subsequent owner, the villa reached the peak of its splendour, enriched with masterpieces by Canova and Hayez and an extraordinary romantic park. In the mid-19th century, Princess Marianne of Orange-Nassau gave the property to her daughter Charlotte as a wedding gift on the occasion of her marriage to Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen. A botany enthusiast, Georg dedicated himself to the development and enrichment of the vast landscaped garden, now famous for the amazing spring blooming of more than 150 varieties of rhododendrons and azaleas.