Villa Cagnola has been a buen retiro of many cardinals, aristocrat bishops and today it hosts of the headquarters of the Higher Institute of Religious Studies and the Fondazione Ambrosiana Paolo VI.
The villa is open to anyone who wants to spend a vacation and it regularly hosts conferences on religious topics, meetings and business events, thanks also to the wonderful panoramic views of Lake Varese and of the Prealpine and Alpine arch, in which the massive Monte Rosa stands out.
The park of the villa connects the upper position of the house with the wide valley below, thanks to a structure that enhances its scenic aspects. The Villa’s name is inspired by the restoration made by Carlo Cagnola, the politician of the late nineteenth century who in 1860 created the flower beds of the Italian garden in the manner of the great romantic parks, with long avenues for scenic walks in the nature.
In total synthony with the trends of the nineteenth century when many exotic species were introduced and the botanical collections were favoured, as well as the trend of new landscape designs for the holiday mansions and delight, even in Villa Cagnola some monumental and majestic tree species can be admired. There are also precious woods like a giant cedar of Lebanon, Sophora japonica, Himalayan cedars and Atlas, the majestic group of Liriodendron tulipifera best known as tulip tree, as well as magnolias, plane trees, beech trees, Japanese maples, red oaks, Chamaecyparis, Calocedri, pines and redwoods, Liriodendri, Liquidambar the US Atlantic coast, American oaks, the majestic beeches, the Fagus pendulous group, the American and Japanese maples.
The Italian garden is located on the large terrace that runs along the front of the Villa, from which visitors can enjoy one of the more significant 360-degree panoramic views, around a perimeter of a stone balustrade, divided into 8 regular flower beds surrounded by hedges in the form of box, with a central pool and jets of water.
The ideal place where to recite the Ungaretti’s verses: “A parapet of breeze tonight on which to lean my melancholy”. Or: “After so much fog one by one the stars are appearing. Breath the fresh that leaves me the color of the sky, I recognize myself as an image taken in an immortal circle”.
Marco Sandrini, Chief Landscape Designer at Sandrini Green Architecture